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Testing the Response of Mycenaean Terracotta Figures and Vessels to Earthquake Ground Motions

In the late 1970s, the hypothesis originated that earthquakes played a decisive role in the decline of the Mycenaean civilization at the end of the Late Bronze Age. The late excavator of Tiryns in the Argolid/Greece, Klaus Kilian, presented evidence for earthquake‐related damage to Mycenaean structures and considered four terracotta figures and two ceramic vessels lying on a floor of a potential cult room (later 12th century B.C.) in the Lower Citadel as “earthquake victims.” The broken figures were confined to a small area on the cult room's floor in front of a bench. We assess the archaeological data and test the plausibility of earthquake‐induced toppling of the objects with engineering seismological models. Dimensions and physical properties of the models were taken from the originals. In our simulations the models are virtually placed on a bench, and are exposed to earthquake ground motions based on records from recent Greek earthquakes. We test the artifacts’ toppling behavior and compare the final position of the fallen objects with the original find spots. Statistical analysis of 74,250 model calculations with highly varied ground motion parameters and bench heights reveal only a small probability that the find situation of the objects was caused by an earthquake.