All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Ancient.Greece.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] On
the island of Crete,

archaeologists
investigate the ruins of a

mysterious ancient palace.

-Oh my God it looks good!

[Narrator] They uncover the
secrets of ancient Greece’s

first great civilization,

that inspired the
myth of the Minotaur.

-It’s pretty amazing,

the cups are pretty well
preserved, though.

[Narrator] And discover
traces of an apocalyptic event

that shattered their world.

[♪ theme music playing]

[Narrator] The wonders of
ancient Greece are among the

greatest ever known.

Greece was the birthplace
of democracy and the cradle

of Western engineering
and architecture.

From inspiring inventions
to epic heroes and legends,

the legacy of ancient Greece
still shapes the modern world.

More than 1,500 years before
the Parthenon rose above Athens,

a people called
the Minoans built

Greece's first civilization.

They lived on the island
of Crete and inspired some

of the greatest
stories ever told.

The ancient Greeks believed
that Crete was the realm

of a tyrannical
king called Minos.

And the lair of the half-man,

half-bull Minotaur that
feasted on human flesh.

-People want to come
here and find the labyrinth.

[Narrator] This season,
international teams of

archaeologists dig through
centuries of earth to

piece together the real
world behind the myths.

-It's not so much about the
treasures you find but about

the information you are
gaining from these treasures.

[Narrator] Who
were the Minoans,

and why did their world
give rise to so many legends?

At Sissi on Crete's
northern coast, it's 6:00 a.m.

Archaeologist Jan Driessen
and his team start their day.

[Jan] I've known the hill of
Sissi since the very early '90s,

but we started to
dig here in 2007.

The entire land is beautiful.

Crete is a gift of the gods,
as they say.

[Narrator] Jan and his team
are uncovering the remains of a

Minoan settlement
that dates back more than

three and a half
thousand years.

The Minoan civilization
emerged on Crete in the

3rd millennium BCE,

around 400 years
before the Pyramids of Egypt,

and more than 1500 years
before the Parthenon of Athens.

Archaeologists call many
Minoan settlements palaces,

because they are centered
around a large building.

But the true purpose of these
structures remains unknown.

[Jan] This season,

we're trying to find the
history of the building,

when was it built,
when was it destroyed.

[Narrator] Jan wants to
discover what went on inside

this building complex,

to understand more about
who the Minoans really were.

The problem is that Sissi
was occupied continuously

for 1,400 years,

which makes the archaeology
difficult to untangle.

[Jan] As soon as we fall
into archaeological layers,

we do it like very slowly,
because archaeology is

basically destruction,

whatever he’s taking away now,
we can never put back.

[Narrator] The palace-style
building at Sissi isn't unique;

there are at least six large
palatial sites on Crete.

Most are on the coast.

And the greatest
lies at Knossos in the

center of the island.

The palace of Knossos is
one of the most extraordinary

megastructures
of ancient Greece.

The site stretches
across almost five acres

and it lies at the heart of
the island's most famous myth.

Ancient texts tell how
Knossos was the capital of

a cruel king called Minos,
who ruled Crete.

The gods sent him
a snow-white bull

to be sacrificed,

but Minos was so
enchanted by its beauty

that he refused
to kill the animal.

As punishment,

the gods cast a spell
on Minos's wife, Pasiphae,

filling her with unnatural
desire for the beast.

From this cursed union,

Pasiphae gave birth
to a mutant creature with

a human body and
a bull's head, the Minotaur.

Horrified, King Minos locked
his monstrous stepson away in a

vast underground labyrinth,
supposedly at Knossos.

What might lie behind
this terrifying tale?

Archaeologist
Nicoletta Momigliano

investigates Knossos and its
links with the ancient myths.

-Knossos is a
really special place,

it's very, very old.

People settled here
around 7000 BCE.

It's, in Europe, it's one of
the oldest Neolithic sites,

and there are almost like
romantic reasons why it is

important, and it is because
this is the site that is so

intertwined with stories about
King Minos, the Minotaur,

the labyrinth.

[Narrator] In 1900, a
British archaeologist called

Arthur Evans began
the first large-scale

excavation at Knossos.

He realized that the
civilization that built it was

far older than those
on mainland Greece.

Discoveries reveal that
in the 2nd millennium BCE,

Knossos was the largest
city in the Aegean,

home to up to 80,000
people during its peak.

At its centre stood a
sprawling multi-story building

with more than 1300 rooms.

A maze of corridors twisted
through storerooms, staircases,

and open courtyards.

Evans believed that this
intricate architectural

masterpiece was itself
the real-life inspiration for

the labyrinth of the Minotaur.

Why?

Nicoletta investigates
clues hidden in the palace.

[Nicoletta] What is interesting
is that here at Knossos,

many blocks of the buildings
are inside the mason's marks.

Here we have two mason's marks
in the shape of a double axe.

According to Evans,

the double axe was called
in ancient Greek labrys,

and the word labrys
was connected to labyrinth.

And therefore
labyrinth really meant

"The house of the double axe."

[Narrator] With this theory,

Evans convinced himself
that the structure at Knossos

was the labyrinth
from the legend.

Other discoveries inside
the palace appear to provide

even stronger evidence.

Wall paintings depict
young men with long hair

leaping over charging bulls

A dangerous sport that is
still practiced alongside

other games with bulls,

in some parts
of Europe today.

[Nicoletta] The bull represents,
in some way,

you could say the
power of Knossos.

But it's the symbol of nature
or the symbol of force,

and that must have meant
something to the Minoans.

[Narrator] At first, the
connections appear convincing.

But the first mention of the
Minotaur in the labyrinth only

appears 1000 years after
the Minoans founded Knossos.

Nicoletta thinks Evans
had another motive for

finding the labyrinth.

-Evans, of course,
always tried in some way

to connect his
archaeological discoveries

to ancient Greek
myths that we know from

later classical sources,

because this stimulated
people's interest.

[Narrator] Archaeologists
have now discovered many

of Evan’s theories were wrong.

And while his reconstructions
may bring Knossos to life,

they were often the product
of Evans’s imagination and

incorporated modern
building materials.

So to find out where
these stories came from and

who the Minoans really were,

archaeologists have to
go back to the start and

look beyond the myth.

What evidence is there
for a ruler like Minos?

[Narrator] At Sissi
in the north of Crete,

Jan and his team dig
in the north-east wing of

the main building.

[Jan] We're trying to find out
what is happening in this area.

There's a big
difference between the

place where we're standing,
which is the entranceway,

and the lower part,
the north east wing.

[Narrator] Jan wants to find
out what this building can

reveal about societies
in ancient Greece.

According to legend, King Minos
of Crete was the most powerful

ruler in ancient Greece
who imprisoned the beast-like

Minotaur in a
labyrinth under Knossos.

Ancient texts from mainland
Greece say King Minos fed his

enemies to his monstrous
stepson in the labyrinth.

He demanded that the city of
Athens send a tribute to Crete

every ninth year.

Seven boys and seven girls,
doomed to be devoured.

Could the figure of King Minos
be based on truth?

Although ancient Minoan
written texts have been found,

so far no one has been able
to decode their language.

Meaning that any evidence
for a king is reliant only on

archaeological finds.

Inside one of the
rooms at Sissi,

the team uncovers
what might be a clue.

[Jan] You can actually see
that there's a lot of pottery,

coarsewares like pieces of, uh,

large storage jars
with like rims and bases.

[Narrator] The team
discovers a room filled with

sherds of pottery,

taken from all over
the site and dumped here

by the Minoans.

-The Minoans
produced so much pottery,

kilos and kilos of pottery
are produced and also thrown

away rather rapidly.

[Narrator] Jan thinks
this pottery heap is more

than just a rubbish tip,

it could be a clue to
the design of the building.

-Dumps of pottery usually
are a sign that they wanted to

lift the floor, they had
to make the floor higher.

[Narrator] The discovery
reveals that Sissi’s main

building was an
impressive structure.

Like Knossos, it probably
had more than one floor.

Who ruled in a house like this?

Jan investigates further.

The raised floor leads
to a corridor that connects

to a central courtyard.

It can hold up to 300
people and can be accessed

from all sides.

-This court is the
focal point of this building,

and this building is the
focal point of the site.

This is where the people
of Sissi gathered.

[Narrator] Archaeologists have
discovered that all the major

palace sites in Crete,
including Knossos,

have central
courtyards like this.

They date back to the middle
of the 2nd millennium BCE.

Jan thinks this feature could
be critical to understanding

Minoan social structures.

-The central court is really
the heart of Minoan society,

it is the same with Knossos,

the time that they were building
the first pyramids in Egypt,

they were gathering
in courts on Crete.

[Narrator] What did
people do in these courts?

A clue could lie in the
painted decorations at Knossos.

Minoan frescos capture
a world that celebrates

youth and vitality,

often depicting young men
and women in ceremonial scenes.

Archaeologists think these
festivals and rituals may have

taken place it the vast,

open courtyards
of Minoan palaces,

where the community
came together.

Some archaeologists believe
that a priest king or a queen

might have presided
over these ceremonies.

But so far,

no archaeological
evidence has been found to

confirm this hypothesis.

So Jan heads to the
edge of the settlement,

where he thinks there
might be a clue.

Here, Jan explores
the site's cemetery,

around 30 tombs.

The pharaohs of ancient Egypt,

who lived at the
same time as the Minoans,

decorated their tombs
with their names and exploits.

But these are
not royal burials.

The tombs contain between
150 and 200 individuals,

all buried together.

[Jan] You cannot
indicate a person who could

have been a ruler in
one of these communities,

there's no royal burials.

[Narrator] Archaeologists have
found no definitive evidence

for a king anywhere on Crete.

Jan thinks sites like Sissi
were not palaces ruled by a

king or a queen,

but the center of a
community governed by a large,

extended families.

-There must have
been competition between

these families,

but they must have come
together in places like this

central court to
discuss their problems.

So these courts
also were a kind of

mechanism of integration,

of cohesion, social cohesion,

that kept the society together.

[Narrator] There's no
evidence for a Minos-like

monarch on Crete.

Instead, it's possible that
powerful families took charge

of political matters.

How did they wield their
power over the island?

And if there was no Minos,

why did the myth of an
all-powerful ruler who fed

children to the
Minotaur emerge?

[Narrator] For decades,
archaeologists believed the

Minoan civilization was
restricted to the so-called

palaces on Crete's coastline.

But now a new generation is
uncovering the secrets of the

Minoan world in
unexpected places.

At Lavrakia in the
south of the island,

archaeologists
Yiannis Papadatos and

Tina Kalanzopoulou are on
their way to a dig site high up

in Crete's mountainous interior.

-It is remote, we're
up 1,000 meters above

main sea level,

and it's about 40 minutes
driving from

the nearest village.

And very far from any center of
habitation in the Minoan period.

[Narrator] Yiannis and Tina
are among the first to excavate

these remote areas.

They started their dig
here at Lavrakia in 2012,

their mission is to
investigate ancient

Crete's hidden population.

[Yiannis] We’re interested
more about ordinary people,

we’re interested about the
everyday life of people living

in the mountains.

[Narrator] Tina and Yiannis
want to find out who these

people were, and what role
they played in Minoan society,

living far away from
the coastal centers.

But distinguishing between
ordinary mountain rock and

Minoan masonry is challenging.

Hidden in the landscape
under collapsed rubble,

the team discovers the
remains of 12 farmhouses.

They uncover the floor
of one of the structures.

[Tina] So we have cooking
and drinking vessels,

and we have some
storage vessels.

[Narrator] The shape of the
vessels reveals this settlement

dates to the same time
as the coastal palaces.

Archaeologists initially
believed these sites

were used seasonally.

But among the rubble,

Tina makes an
exciting discovery.

[Tina] We have an
actual potter’s wheel,

which is something that
we did not expect to find.

Most of the pottery we
had in the area was imported

from the lowlands.

[Narrator] The potter's
wheel is covered

with strange markings.

[Tina] There are cravings,

but the carvings
are not symbols, they merely,

they are there so that the clay,

the wet clay,
stucks on it properly,

so when it turns,
it doesn't slide.

[Narrator] The marks reveal
the wheel's heavy use,

they prove that people
were living here permanently.

The question is why?

At another section
of the farmhouse,

Yiannis searches for a clue.

[Yiannis] This is the
lower jaw of an animal,

probably a sheep or a goat.

[Narrator] Yiannis thinks that
sheep and goats were highly

prized in Minoan society,

as they provided meat
and wool for textiles.

A hint to the importance of
wool for the ancient Greeks

can be found in the stories
of the Minotaur.

According to the myth,

no one could escape
the labyrinth and the jaws

of the Minotaur.

One year, the Prince of Athens,

Theseus, joined the group
of sacrificial tributes,

determined to kill the beast.

The king's daughter
Ariadne fell for him,

she gave him a sword and
a ball of red woolen thread

to find his way out of the maze.

The story suggests that
wool was key to livelihoods.

[Yiannis] It is very important
that we find animal bones in

this excavation because our
main aim is to construct the,

a relationship between
the humans and animals

that were here.

So by studying,
um, animal bones,

we will be able to reconstruct
aspects of their economy.

[Narrator] It’s a rare find.

[Yiannis] In this
particular trench,

it’s the first bone we
need to go around it and

then cover it to protect it,

and then we’re going to
remove it when we go deeper.

It’s too fragile to
be removed right now.

[Narrator] The discoveries
reveal that Lavrakia

was a thriving,
rural community.

Its inhabitants
mastered living in the

harsh mountain terrain,

rearing sheep and
goats for wool and meat.

-The success of this
civilization was exactly because

of their ability to
exploit every tiny corner

of this island.

[Narrator] Yiannis suspects
this settlement was probably

one of many that dominated
Crete's interior.

It hints at a highly organized
society that extended far

beyond the coastal settlements,

more sophisticated
than any other Greek

civilization at the time.

Could this be the root of the
stories of King Minos's power?

[Narrator] The legends
say King Minos ruled a great

empire from the
island of Crete.

His power supposedly
rested on naval supremacy.

While there may be no evidence
for a real ruler like Minos,

a clue to this maritime myth
could lie in Egypt, near Luxor,

at the Valley of the
Nobles on the west bank

of ancient Thebes.

Here, Arto Belekdanian
investigates the tomb

of an Egyptian official
called Rekhmire.

The tomb dates to the
reign of King Thutmose III,

in the 1400s BCE,

around 100 years

before Tutankhamun
took the throne,

and when the palace
of Knossos reached its height.

The paintings on the wall
reveal Rekhmire was second only

to the king.

They also contain an
insight into the world

beyond Egypt's shores.

-The ancient Egyptians loved
recording their accomplishments

in life in their tombs.

This was a way to show off
to all posterity the station

that they held in life.

On this wall here,

we see people from all over
the known world bringing gifts

to the pharaoh Thutmose III,

and this is all
overseen by Rekhmire.

[Narrator] Arto investigates
who these people were,

details in their dress
provide evidence.

-They are sporting long hair
and these beautiful, patterned,

richly colorful kilts.

[Narrator] These people look
distinctly similar to those

depicted at Knossos.

Like the young men with long
hair leaping over bulls.

One offering shown in the tomb
of Rekhmire appears to be a

vessel in the shape
of a bull's head,

it too provides a link to Crete.

The Minoans are known to have
carved ceremonial vessels

shaped like bull's
heads called rhyta,

it's possible they were
designed to catch the blood of

sacrificed animals.

A sarcophagus at an
archaeological site in

southern Crete shows
a bull pinned down,

sacrificed as part of a ritual.

-These men are
unmistakably Cretan.

These people are
called the Keftiu,

that's the term that the
ancient Egyptians used to refer

to the people in and
around the island of Crete

in the Mediterranean.

[Narrator] The wall paintings
suggest the Egyptians saw the

Keftiu as inferior
subjects bringing tributes.

But Arto thinks it's more
likely they had a partnership.

Vessels like rhyta were highly
prized by the ancient Egyptians

due to their exquisite
craftsmanship and religious

purposes, and so were gifted
diplomatically by the Minoans.

[Arto] The ancient Egyptians
and the Minoans

were trading partners.

So the Minoans would
export to the ancient Egyptians,

fine, highly prized pottery,
richly decorated metalwork,

fragrant oils, and textiles.

And in return, the ancient
Egyptians would export one of

the things that they were
most famous for, gold,

and of course, papyrus
and grain as well.

[Narrator] Archaeologists have
found other signs of contact

between Minoan Crete and Egypt.

Artists painted scenes of
bull leaping on the palace

walls at Avaris in Egypt,
echoing the Minoan frescos.

An ancient Egyptian papyrus
mentions Cretan ships at

Peru-nefer, a
harbor in the Nile Delta,

perhaps there to dock
or undergo repairs.

Harbors linked Crete to Egypt,

ships arrived
with foreign goods,

and local bronze
weapons were sent in return.

Archaeologists have discovered
Minoan artifacts all over the

ancient world, from across
the sea in Syria, Anatolia,

Mesopotamia, Cyprus,

and as far away as
the Iberian Peninsula.

It reveals that the Minoans
were successful seafarers,

and hints at a shadow
of truth behind the tale

of King Minos' naval empire.

But if there was no actual
royal ruler like Minos,

who controlled this
booming trade in Crete?

At Lavrakia in the
southern mountains,

Tina and Yiannis now want to
investigate the relationship

between the palace cities
and the rural settlements,

but the remote landscape
is challenging.

[Tina] It's not very easy

to figure out the connection

of rural sites to the
palatial centers.

[Narrator] A clue to the links
between palace and countryside

could lie with pottery.

Tina and the team
uncover the layers of rubble

at one of the houses,

they make an
exciting discovery.

-The base is
narrower than expected,

but it must have been
quite a large jar.

[Narrator] The size and shape
of this jar indicate it was

made during the height of
the Minoan civilization,

when the palaces at
Sissi and Knossos reached

their greatest extent.

[Tina] It's a container, it
must have been a closed vessel,

so it's a bit smaller to be
storage and a bit fancier,

so I guess it's either
transportation or pouring from

one vessel to another.

[Narrator] Vessels like this
were often used to transport

goods across Crete.

-We’re wondering if these
sites are providing the palaces

with animals for feasts,
wool for textiles,

with wood for their
building projects.

[Narrator] This evidence
suggests that the people in the

mountains were sending raw
materials down to the palaces.

Most palaces were strategically
positioned on the coast,

processing and producing
the goods that flowed

in and out of the island.

It's not clear if these rural
areas were ruled by the palaces.

Yiannis thinks they
had a partnership.

-We cannot imagine
people living permanently up

here without having
a well-organized,

palatial system down in the
lowlands to support them.

But on the other hand,

I cannot imagine also the
palatial system working and

functioning properly
without the materials and the

goods produced
in the mountains.

[Narrator] The Minoans
had to work together to forge

a strong and reliable
trade network.

[Yiannis] We see the
palaces as good managers

rather than powerful,
political institutions that

were exerting controls
through physical presence

of the mountains.

[Narrator] Tina and Yiannis's
dig is painting a new picture

of the real Minoans
behind the myths.

The Minoans built an
advanced civilization with

an impressive
global trading network,

that stretched from the
mountains of Lavrakia to

the halls of the
pharaohs in Egypt.

It required a mastery
of the sea that would be

remembered for centuries.

But around 1450 BCE,
Minoan society collapsed.

Why did their world
come to an end,

and how might the fall
of the Minoans explain

the later myths?

[Narrator] In the
late Bronze Age,

the once thriving
palaces at the heart of

Minoan society fell
into major decline.

Clues to the Minoan downfall
can be found in these palaces.

At Sissi, on Crete's
northern coast,

the team works hard to
investigate why the Minoans

abandoned the site.

Jan is called over to a trench
at the south edge of the court.

[Jan] Now what’s
happening, Lena?

Oh my God, it looks good!

Yeah, but you can
really tell that er,

it’s tumbled down with all
the architecture and so on.

[Narrator] Here, Lena
finds ceramic vessels strewn

haphazardly in
the layers of earth.

[Jan] So one, two,
three, or four, five,

six vases maybe here already.

Lena’s been clearing
this deposit, I mean,

she’s the first one
to see this deposit in

like 4,000 years,
and that is quite exciting.

[Narrator] The pottery
matches broken ceramics

Jan found in the
same room last year.

Unlike pottery found elsewhere,

which was deposited
to raise floor levels,

their positioning
suggests something different

happened here.

[Jan] In this case,

it looks like an
earthquake destruction.

[Narrator] It seems
like Sissi experienced

a devastating earthquake.

The shape of the vessels
allows Jan to date the layer.

[Jan] You see the typical
cups in different areas.

It’s middle Bronze Age,

so er, it’s an earlier phase
of the, the court building.

[Narrator] It's
an exciting find,

but almost 300 years too
early to have caused the

fall of the Minoans.

[Jan] It's another piece
in the puzzle, it's a,

almost a freeze frames and
brings us back in this case

to about 1750 BC.

[Narrator] The Minoans
rebuilt on top of this layer.

And as Jan and the team
continue to sift through the

earth for evidence,

they make another discovery.

-Here you actually
have this like, um,

the top of the wall and
you see that just like a,

a layer of about
ten centimeters,

12 centimeters of
like brown earth,

and it’s sitting on top of
like a, a very bright grey,

white layer.

The way it sticks to
your fingers, you see,

is a good indication that
have to deal with ash.

[Narrator] The ash
is an intriguing find.

How did it get here?

Buried within the ruins
of Sissi is an anomaly.

Within the ash deposits,
experts have found small

pockets of tiny stone fragments.

This stone isn't found
naturally on the island.

Chemical analysis
reveals that it's pumice,

a type of rock formed
during a volcanic eruption.

Traces of this fallout are
scattered across the site.

The ash layer would have
suffocated everything

in its path.

Could a volcano have ended
the Minoan civilization?

The ash fall is impossible
to date by itself,

but there is only one candidate
for the volcanic eruption.

Over 3,500 years ago,

the nearby volcanic
island of Santorini erupted

with devastating force.

Ash and pumice from
the eruption spread

across the Aegean,

raining down as
far south as Crete.

The eruption also triggered
a series of tsunami waves

that slammed into
Crete's north coast,

sinking ships and
disrupting trade routes.

The discovery of one of
the victims of this tsunami

in western Turkey

revealed that this eruption
happened around 1500 BCE.

It would have been
devastating for the Minoans.

[Jan] Ash is really bad for
your health, bad for animals,

and bad for your vegetation.

[Narrator] Some archaeologists
believe the eruption

triggered a chain of
events that culminated in

the downfall of the Minoans.

[Jan] Around the time of
the Santorini eruption,

the period of trouble starts.

[Narrator] Many Minoan
palaces like the one at Sissi,

were abandoned, and the
central courts fell out of use.

-If you lose this instrument
of social cohesion,

then you know that
something is going wrong,

so the society is
disintegrating.

[Narrator] Why were the
Minoans not able to rebuild as

they did after the earthquakes?

And why did later
generations remember them

as cruel tyrants?

[Narrator] According to myth,

Prince Theseus of
Athens was determined to

break the hold
of King Minos over his city.

Armed with a sword and
a ball of woolen thread,

he hunted down and killed
the Minotaur in the maze,

ending the tradition of
cruel human sacrifice.

Ancient writers say Minos
later met his own gruesome

death and was doomed to become
a judge of the underworld.

Why did the real
Minoans also fall?

At Luxor in Egypt,

Arto investigates another
piece in the puzzle of

the downfall of the Minoans.

He's come to the temple
of Pharaoh Amenhotep III.

It dates to around 1350 BCE,

roughly 150 years after
the Santorini eruption.

And it's home to two
colossal statues.

-They represent
King Amenhotep III,

a very successful king who
ruled over a very prosperous

Egypt in the 1300s BC.

And while these statues
might look very desolate

and lonely now,

they actually fronted a
massive temple once upon a time.

[Narrator] Hundreds of
statues of King Amenhotep III

have been
unearthed across the site,

most little more
than fragments.

On one, archaeologists
found a rare inscription

written in hieroglyphs.

-Sadly, this statue
base is destroyed now,

but there are images of it.

[Narrator] The inscription
refers to a number of people

and places in
ancient Greece,

it's called the Aegean List,

and is the only one
of its kind ever found.

[Arto] This one here
actually reads Keftiu.

[Narrator] Keftiu was the
name the ancient Egyptians used

for the Minoans.

-And then on
the side of the statue,

more very famous place names
appear, including Knossos.

[Narrator] The inscription
reveals that the Minoans were

still known to the
ancient Egyptians.

But alongside Knossos lies
the name of another Greek city

mentioned for the first
time in Egyptian records.

-And the other famous
one is none other than Mycenae.

[Narrator] Mycenae was
the most powerful city in

mainland Greece at this time.

Its presence on the Aegean
list suggests a dramatic rise

in status to rank alongside
Knossos in Egyptian eyes.

At Knossos, Nicoletta thinks
the rise of the Mycenaeans led

to the loss of power
for the Minoans.

Archaeologists have found
evidence of deliberate

destruction across Crete,

at the same time
as the appearance of

Mycenaean evidence here.

-I do think that at some point,

people from mainland
Greece took over and became

the rulers of this island.

[Narrator] Knossos was the
last of the palaces to fall.

Nicoletta thinks the
Mycenaean arrival might also

have led to the legends.

[Nicoletta] If some of
the arrival is also linked

to violent takeover,
what happens afterwards is,

if you like, history
written by whoever wins.

And over a number
of generations, yes,

I think Mycenaeans and their
descendants in particular were

instrumental in
creating this myth.

[Narrator] The mainland Greeks
perhaps created the stories of

Minos and his
monstrous stepson,

a myth reflected in the killing
of the Minotaur by Theseus.

-There is a reality,

the reality is this
incredible archaeological site.

But it's not that here
there was a Minotaur,

it's not that here
there was a labyrinth,

these are stories that are
elaborated as a response to

memory of what happened here,

and as transmitted
orally over the century,

things got distorted,
changed, embellished.

[Narrator] The
fascination with Minos,

the labyrinth, and the
Minotaur is generations old.

Later Greek and Roman coins
have been found decorated with

symbols of the Minotaur
and the labyrinth.

[Nicoletta] In a sense,
Greek mythology,

these wonderful stories,
because they are wonderful,

amazing stories, are
almost like the bible

of the Western world,
and people want to find

something that gives some
kernel of truth behind them.

[Narrator] At Sissi,

Jan thinks the
cultural memory of the Minoans

shaped the island's
history for centuries.

-The funny thing is,
once the palace of Knossos was

abandoned in the
late Bronze Age,

they never built upon it,

so it was kept
almost as a taboo,

so if they knew that
there was something there.

[Narrator] The Minoans
were the first great

Greek civilization,
the oldest in Europe.

From the bustling city centers
on the coast to remote,

rugged mountains inland,
evidence suggests they were

ruled not by a monarch,
but by powerful clans...

...with international allies
and cultural achievements

that still resonate today.

-It’s the first major
European civilization that

we have that has
amazing architecture,

several stories high with
a very modern feeling to it,

like light and air and color,

the integration
of the landscape,

the frescos that are almost
like an elegy of nature.

The attention

to human beings that
you see in the frescos,

it makes it a very
human society too,

which is probably one
of the main attractions

of this society.

[Narrator] The later Greeks
remembered and revered the

Minoans long after
their disappearance.

The myths of Minos and
the Minotaur endured,

and the lure of
Bronze Age Crete continues.

The Minoans are
still mysterious,

but thanks to
new discoveries,

their world is coming to light.