Skeleton of young man killed by ancient tsunami found on Turkish coast

Skeleton of young man killed by ancient tsunami found on Turkish coast

(Web Desk) – An international team of researchers has found and excavated the remains of a young man killed approximately 3,600 years ago by a tsunami created by the eruption of Thera—a volcano located on what is now the island of Santorini.

In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how the remains were found and how they were identified as belonging to a victim of the Thera tsunami.

Prior research has shown that the eruption of Thera was a major event—so powerful that it has been blamed for the decline of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. Prior research has also shown that the eruption occurred sometime during the 1500s to 1600s B.C.

Santorini is located in the eastern Mediterranean, north of Crete, between southern Greece and southern Turkey. And while evidence of the ash that fell from the skies in areas all around the eruption site has been plentiful, there has been scant evidence of the tsunami. This is because tsunamis tend to pull debris and bodies back into the sea, rather than leave covered evidence on shore. And because of that, the remains of the victims of the Thera tsunami have never been found—not one single body—until now.

The remains of the young man were found at a dig site known as ÇeÅ