"Orality" and Writing on the Island of Thera

The island of Thera collapsed in the Late Bronze Age (LC I/LM IA) due to a violent volcanic eruption. The magnitude of this phenomenon has long suggested that ancient memories of the event might have been transformed into legends and myths passed down to us over the centuries. Some of these ancient memories have also inspired the scientific debate around concepts that have long been discussed – and to some extent still are today – such as Thucydides’ Minoan thalassocracy. Notoriously, Thera’s position has also been crucial in the discussion on the question of “Minoanisation”. Without going deeply into that question and its many implications, the aim of this paper is to investigate those relations between Crete and Thera implied by the epigraphic and palaeographic evidence, using a selection of examples from my research project Writing in Late Bronze Age Thera, and including some preliminary observations on two new texts recently discovered in Akrotiri.