From Santorini to Trieste and Suez: scientific knowledge, discovery and use of Theran earth in the Mediterranean (from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century)

Abstract

This article examines the origins of the European scientific, technical and economic interest in the volcanic tephra of the islands of Santorini and Therasia as a building material in harbour and coastal projects. The research (a) brings new data on the discovery and early use of Theran earth at a point earlier in the nineteenth century than was previously known; and (b) explains the transition from the general references to Santorini’s volcanic ash by European travellers (in the eighteenth century) to the most detailed scientific and technical descriptions of the chemical properties of the ash made by the German and Austrian geologists and engineers (by the mid-nineteenth century). The role of experts was crucial in the discovery and exploitation of Theran earth. While the scientific research of European and Greek specialists was reliant on the state powers of the day, it also entertained close bonds with the entrepreneurial and technical networks that commanded the exploitation of the mineral resources of the Mediterranean. New forms of expertise and communication among experts, competition and scientific exchanges set in motion innovative channels for the movement of material resources around the Mediterranean, triggered by burgeoning industrialization in Europe and beyond. Many actors at a local, national and transnational level (such as geologists, engineers, state employees and merchants) were involved in multiple technical and entrepreneurial networks for the trading and appropriation of Theran earth for use in the harbour and construction projects under way all around the Mediterranean.