A number of year ago I saw a National Geographic article about excavations in Bulgaria. It might have been shortly after the 1972 date mentioned for major discoveries in the article. At any rate I was impressed with the colorfulness and beauty of the pottery items. These items were excavated from a 50 foot high settlement mound that had been built up over thousands of years of building and rebuilding. The date mentioned for these colorful objects was more than 5,000 BC.
The article showed later objects from the same mound dated around 3,000 BC. While well formed, they were dark and depressing in style. It seemed as though something had taken the joy away from these people. Since I am into catastrophe, I checked my volcano directory and found that Mt. Mazama (also known as Crater Lake) in our own US made it’s might explosion leaving a 6 mile diameter crater. This was around 7,000 years ago. Since Mt. Pinitubo left a 3 mile diameter crater, then the volume of ejecta from Mazam would have been 8 times that of Pinitubo. Perhaps you remember the 500 year flood of the Mississippi, or the deadly ice storms in the Appalacians after Pinitubo.
I am guessing that Mazama must have had a significant worldwide impact. Then again, there may be other equally or even greater volcanic events separating the happy culture from the morose culture. Anyone have a candidate?
My mother was born in that part of the world — Thrace, present-day Bulgaria. It’s called the Valley of the Roses. The roses grown there are used as the basis of many perfumes. I was told that most if them are exported to France.
I went there when I was a kid and have many fond memories. I remember seeing so many mounds throughout the country. Some were being excavated, but we weren’t allowed to get close to the digs.
As for a catastrophic event as you say, when did the volcano in Santorini explode? Maybe that was the cause of it.