Sunday, August 2, 2020

Mt. St. Irene

Karátson et al. attempt to map Saint Irene's Island.

The basis here is an interpretation of the Flotilla Fresco as a scene from right there at home near the harbour. It would follow Egyptian rules of perspective: closer objects below, further objects above. The Fresco places ships below (mostly paddled - not even rowed); a ring of hills leading to a water-passage; and ocean above symbolised with dolphins. From that, and from Minoan-era "tuffs" (blasted rock from the explosion), they see a Round Island (strongyle) already with a caldera in the middle.

(There may be an island in the centre of the caldera, with the palace. Looks like we ain't got that anymore...)

This island started becoming a Plinian 360ish kya. The Fresco's central caldera formed 20000 BC when people weren't on these islands.

What I didn't know: last April whilst awaiting the IntCal1920 radiocarbon recalibration (b/c IntCal13 is bad for 1620-1540 BC), Charlotte Pearson led a team including Peter Kuniholm (pdf) finding a calcium "disturbance" 1560 BC. The weather wasn't particularly droughty; there wasn't a fire going on. So they figure: acid rain. This agrees with one of the volcanos depositing ash in Lappland 1597, 1560, 1546, 1544, and 1524 BC.

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