The square of the Double Horns was named after the so-called Horns of Consecration, the Minoan symbol that is thought to represent the horns of the sacred bull. These double horns are carved in off-white tuff, a relatively soft type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. The horns crowned the building whose façade is on the square. Initially, they were placed above the entrance, but the archaeologists placed them on the ground for safety reasons. The square itself was a late feature of the urban landscape of Akrotiri. It was created after the great earthquake that struck the town in the mid-seventeenth century BCE as a convenient method of dealing with the debris from the destruction.