They had no defensive walls, at least not in the way we might expect, and no coinage. Still, they managed to maintain extensive trade networks, with connections reaching as far as Central Asia, and materials such as lapis lazuli ultimately originating in what is now Afghanistan.

The Aegean Sea around 1600 BC was probably far busier than we tend to imagine, with substantial maritime trade connecting islands, coastal settlements, and distant civilizations. Without compasses, sailors relied on landmarks, celestial navigation, experience, and routes that often took them from island to island. Minoan settlements across the Aegean may have helped secure maritime routes and provided a degree of protection to Crete itself. This could partly explain why major Minoan palaces lacked the defensive fortifications common elsewhere. There is also another issue, one that receives less attention in popular accounts, despite having affected several Eastern Mediterranean societies of the period.

The eruption of Thera was approaching, and there is archaeological evidence suggesting that at least some inhabitants had time to leave before the final catastrophic event. The absence of human remains in the excavated areas of Akrotiri is particularly striking, although it does not establish that the entire island was successfully evacuated. Some evidence also suggests limited human activity or resettlement in the broader area after the eruption.

The Minoans were not immediately destroyed by the eruption. Its impact on their fleets, ports, and trading networks remains debated, but the disruption may have weakened their maritime position. Over the following centuries, several major Minoan palaces were destroyed, in circumstances that likely involved a combination of natural disasters, conflict, and political change. Some destruction layers suggest deliberate burning, although the precise events and motivations remain uncertain. At one palace, evidence of exceptionally intense fire has prompted interpretations involving stored combustible materials and restricted ventilation, potentially producing furnace-like temperatures. The exact mechanism, however, is not firmly established.

The changing balance of power in the Aegean eventually favored the Mycenaeans, who came to dominate much of the region. Centuries later, the wider Eastern Mediterranean experienced another series of upheavals, conventionally associated with the Late Bronze Age collapse and the groups described in Egyptian records as the Sea Peoples. These events were separated by considerable time, and their causes were probably more complex than a single chain of disasters or conquests.

And that is perhaps the more important story of what was lost. Long-distance trade networks were disrupted or reorganized. In parts of the Aegean, palace administration disappeared, along with the use of Linear B writing. Monumental construction and certain specialized techniques declined or changed, although this did not mean that mathematical or architectural knowledge vanished everywhere. Earlier artifacts such as the Phaistos Disc, with its repeated stamped symbols, remind us that these societies had developed sophisticated techniques whose full significance we still do not understand.

Some regions also experienced declining use of wheeled transport, possibly reflecting changes in infrastructure, terrain, economics, and social organization rather than a literal forgetting of the wheel. Population losses, displacement, and settlement abandonment were substantial in some areas, but their scale varied across the Eastern Mediterranean.

By around the eighth century BC, alphabetic writing had become established in Greece, following centuries without the earlier palace-based writing system. Settlement patterns had changed, and some communities had moved to more defensible locations. Memories of earlier events may have survived through oral traditions and legends, although connecting individual myths to particular historical disasters is inherently speculative.

That centuries-long disruption in technology, trade, and social organization may have had consequences extending far beyond its immediate aftermath. Technological progress is not necessarily linear, and the loss of complex networks can affect development for generations. The cumulative effect is difficult to measure, but potentially enormous.

To make a very broad and deliberately speculative analogy, perhaps AI could have been invented in 1400 AD under a radically different historical trajectory, and by now we might all be virtual.

On another note, all wtitten from memory, not an archeologist but I assisted the team that worked on the computational reconstruction of the Thera frescoes, which are now on display. The dedication of the Greek archaeological team was legendary in its own right.

Greece has its own Pompeii: Thera buried Akrotiri in ash 17th-16th century BCE