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[[File:Santorini ASTER.jpg|thumb|Santorini/Thera]]
The [[Minoan eruption#Eruption dating|eruption of the Thera volcano]] provides a possible time marker for the region. A large eruption, it would have sent a plume of ash directly over Anatolia and filled the sea in the area with floating pumice. This pumice appeared in Egypt, apparently via trade. Current excavations in the Levant may also add to the timeline. The exact date of the volcanic eruption has been the subject of strong debate, with dates, ranging between 1628 and 1520 BC. These dates are based on radiocarbon samples, dendrochronology, ice cores, and archaeological remains. Archaeological remains date the eruption toward the end of the [[Minoan civilization#Late Minoan|Late Minoan IIAIA]] period (c. 1636–1527 BC) roughly comparable to the beginning of the New Kingdom in Egypt.<ref>Mühlenbruch, Tobias, "The absolute dating of the volcanic eruption of Santorini/Thera (periferia South Aegean/GR) – an alternative perspective", Praehistorische Zeitschrift, vol. 92, no. 1-2, pp. 92-107, 2017</ref> Radiocarbon dating has placed it at between 1627 BC and 1600 BC with a 95% degree of probability.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Friedrich|first=Walter L|author2=Kromer, B|author3=Friedrich, M|author4=Heinemeier, J|author5=Pfeiffer, T|author6=Talamo, S|title=Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627–1600 B.C.|journal=Science|volume=312|issue=5773|pages=548|publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science|year=2006|doi=10.1126/science.1125087|access-date=10 March 2007|pmid=16645088|s2cid=35908442|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;312/5773/548|archive-date=19 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619090500/http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;312/5773/548|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Manning">Manning, Sturt W., et al., "Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C.", Science, vol. 312, no. 5773, pp. 565–569, 2006</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=SW |last=Manning |contribution=Clarifying the "high" v. "low" Aegean/Cypriot chronology for the mid second millennium BC: assessing the evidence, interpretive frameworks, and current state of the debate |title=The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. III. Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000 – 2nd EuroConference, Vienna 28th of May – 1st of June 2003 |editor1-first=M |editor1-last=Bietak |place=Vienna, Austria |pages=101–137 |year=2003 |contribution-url=http://dendro.cornell.edu/articles/manning2007a.pdf |editor2-last=Czerny |editor2-first=E |access-date=2 November 2013}}</ref> Archaeologist Kevin Walsh, accepting the radiocarbon dating, suggests a possible date of 1628 and believes this to be the most debated event in Mediterranean archaeology.<ref name=Walsh>{{cite book |last=Walsh |first=Kevin |title=The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes: Human-Environment Interaction from the Neolithic to the Roman Period |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521853019 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQJaAQAAQBAJ&q=eruption+Thera%7Csantorini&pg=PA20}}</ref> For the ANE chronology a key problem is the lack of a linkage between the eruption and some point on the floating chronology of the Middle Bronze Age in the ANE.
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