I'm sure I'm not alone thinking of ancient Crete and the Minoan civilization, when watching news footages from the Tohoku Earthquake in Japan. Until the 3.11 quake hit, I was always a little sceptical about the CGI version of the tsunami that destroyed the Minoan civilization in c.15th century BCE.
Here is one such image:
The Minoan civilization is generally considered as the first European civilization which flourished in the Bronze Age. Most likely an offshoot of booming economy and maritime commerce in the Mediterranean, the Minoans were like the first colony created by the advanced economy that developed in the Levant. The myth of Zeus' abduction of Europa from Tyre loosely reflects its background. This is also the time of Egypt's decline, and other centres of human activities were thriving in its place along the Med coastal regions.
However, this civilization was destroyed quite suddenly when the volcanic island of Thera or Santrini erupted, blowing up the inner half of the island itself and causing a massive tsunami, which hit Crete within a few hours.
The Minoans were maritime people and lived along the coast. They stood no chance in face of a gigantic tidal wave of 10-20 m or probably even higher. Above is our modern recreation of this tsunami by CGI: a massive, black wall of water racing towards you at 100mph or something like that.
I keep seeing these CGI recreations on History Channel, Discovery and NatGeographic Channel, BBC, C4, etc, and was always thinking, well, surely the real thing must have looked very differently.
Now, here is the real one, that hit Japan on 3.11:
Sure, it is less dramatic, as what we see here is more like the ocean swelling by 10+ meters and simply ran over the sea wall built as anti-tsunami defence. In fact, the most dramatic moments were probably not filmed because people didn't start using their cameras until they finally realised that this was really real. This particular footage seems to have started just a second before the wall was breached.
Luckily for Japan, this tsunami didn't hit the centre of Japanese economy. While this was the worst human tragedy this nation suffered in its post-WW2 history, at least the capital of Japan escaped significant physical damage. Though Tohoku is by no means unimportant, as it produces food for Tokyo and many factories are also located, the rest of Japan is capable of keeping Japanese economy going. In contrast, in case of Crete, the Minoan civilization wasn't big enough geographically for the survivors to generate enough economy and industry for a speedy recovery. The Minoans indeed never recovered and the centre of the eastern Mediterranean civilization moved north, to the Greek mainland.
I have a feeling that if Tohoku had been a separate country, it wd have been destroyed for good. Now an odd thought: Japanese media keep saying that the last time a tsunami of this scale hit this region was 1,000 years ago. That's when Tohoku was conquered by the Japanese. Did they take advantage of an earthquake to subjugate the natives? Well, if I managed to find something in my research, I'd get back to you.
Here is one such image:
The Minoan civilization is generally considered as the first European civilization which flourished in the Bronze Age. Most likely an offshoot of booming economy and maritime commerce in the Mediterranean, the Minoans were like the first colony created by the advanced economy that developed in the Levant. The myth of Zeus' abduction of Europa from Tyre loosely reflects its background. This is also the time of Egypt's decline, and other centres of human activities were thriving in its place along the Med coastal regions.
However, this civilization was destroyed quite suddenly when the volcanic island of Thera or Santrini erupted, blowing up the inner half of the island itself and causing a massive tsunami, which hit Crete within a few hours.
The Minoans were maritime people and lived along the coast. They stood no chance in face of a gigantic tidal wave of 10-20 m or probably even higher. Above is our modern recreation of this tsunami by CGI: a massive, black wall of water racing towards you at 100mph or something like that.
I keep seeing these CGI recreations on History Channel, Discovery and NatGeographic Channel, BBC, C4, etc, and was always thinking, well, surely the real thing must have looked very differently.
Now, here is the real one, that hit Japan on 3.11:
Sure, it is less dramatic, as what we see here is more like the ocean swelling by 10+ meters and simply ran over the sea wall built as anti-tsunami defence. In fact, the most dramatic moments were probably not filmed because people didn't start using their cameras until they finally realised that this was really real. This particular footage seems to have started just a second before the wall was breached.
Luckily for Japan, this tsunami didn't hit the centre of Japanese economy. While this was the worst human tragedy this nation suffered in its post-WW2 history, at least the capital of Japan escaped significant physical damage. Though Tohoku is by no means unimportant, as it produces food for Tokyo and many factories are also located, the rest of Japan is capable of keeping Japanese economy going. In contrast, in case of Crete, the Minoan civilization wasn't big enough geographically for the survivors to generate enough economy and industry for a speedy recovery. The Minoans indeed never recovered and the centre of the eastern Mediterranean civilization moved north, to the Greek mainland.
I have a feeling that if Tohoku had been a separate country, it wd have been destroyed for good. Now an odd thought: Japanese media keep saying that the last time a tsunami of this scale hit this region was 1,000 years ago. That's when Tohoku was conquered by the Japanese. Did they take advantage of an earthquake to subjugate the natives? Well, if I managed to find something in my research, I'd get back to you.
