Despite having lived for most of our history as hunter-gatherers, or some variant thereof, disaster research has overwhelmingly focussed on events from the recent human past. Consequently, research into prehistoric disasters remains a small but growing field of study. This paper explores some of the temptations and pitfalls of reductive assumptions when considering ‘natural’ disasters from prehistory with a lack of accompanying archaeological data, while also considering some of the advantages of having detailed palaeoenvironmental data pertaining to the event. Striving to avoid normative assumptions and environmental determinism, we may consider the multi-scalar processes that affected both prehistoric people and the archaeological record to which we bear witness. The Storegga palaeotsunami (c. 8150 BP) is reviewed in the light of these considerations. It is suggested that the taphonomic impact of the tsunami, combined with a potentially rapid, if not regionally variable rate of recovery, may explain why it has been difficult to clearly evince the impact (or disaster) relating to the tsunami archaeologically, despite the imposing nature of the phenomenon as inferred from extant palaeoenvironmental data.