Santorini's Post-Minoan Resettlement Traced Through Phoenician and Spartan Arrivals
Santorini, an island in the Aegean Sea, was depopulated after a catastrophic volcanic eruption in the sixteenth century BC, which destroyed Minoan settlements like Akrotiri. The island, once a significant trade center, was later resettled. According to ancient historian Herodotus, Phoenicians were the first to resettle Santorini after the eruption. He states that some of Cadmus's men, on their way from Phoenicia to Greece, decided to stay on the island in the ninth century BCE. Archaeological evidence supports this, with the earliest traces of Greek script on Santorini dating to this period, written in Phoenician characters but with Greek words. This aligns with the earliest post-Minoan settlement found at Ancient Thera, also dated to the ninth century BCE. Approximately eight generations later, in the seventh century BCE, Spartans arrived, led by Prince Theras, from whom the island received its name 'Thera.' This account is also corroborated by archaeological findings of Spartan presence from the seventh ... 
