Original subtitles

Rice is their staple food.

The entire Liangzhu culture is built on rice farming.

Rice farming has different requirements

to wheat farming.

It's a crop that needs refined management.

In its growing cycle, it needs

constant irrigation and draining,

Liangzhu's hydraulic system includes high dams and low dams.

The high dams reservoir is the blue area on our map.

It's the other side of that mountain so can't be seen from here.

The low dams, are in front of us.

This huge area is the low dam reservoir.

Its complex structure, and its huge scale

represent the highest standard

Liangzhu is like Venice.

It's a water town.

In the town, there are all kinds of man-made waterways.

A total length of 35 kilometres.

And the surrounding water network is like a road network.

The challenges that the Minoan faces

is dependent on which part of the island you are.

Because you either find very, very dry, rocky places

or you find plains like the one we are just now.

And so each of these ecological spheres

was good for specific things.

So one was for grazing.

Another might have been good for grain.

As archaeologists, we are still trying to really understand

how these places function.

Because we see that there are these open places.

For example, we have the three western courts,

a central court, and an eastern court.

If I had to try and define a Minoan palace

There are a lot of places for storage and storage of staples,

like wine, oil, maybe also barley and wheat.

And so what we can reckon

is that all these were stored together.

Maybe to be used in order to

Now we can see that places like Phaistos

worked like gathering places,

where ceremonial activity was going on

that allowed people to bring their stuff.

And they were also getting everything that they needed.

So there was exchange

and there was also putting things together.

In a way, a palace can be compared to a hub.

So I bring my olive, you bring your wheat

and you bring my meat.

And then we can put everything together

This civilisation precedes the Roman Empire

by more than two and a half thousand years.

It seems that the town was settled

at one single point of time.

And there was huge planning

If you are maintaining a large population

and in a very concentrated area

so you generate dirty water quite a lot.

And through the stagnant water you get diseases

Every household has the drain

which is coming out of the house

and then it turns and it joins the street drain.

And the street drain then takes it out of the town area.

It is one single item that can make your life good or bad.

If you can’t get rid of the disposal properly,

One well would have done for the whole neighbourhood

but here the case is different.

They want to keep the water with them,

very near.

They want personal water.

They undertook this task

despite the fact that they had the easy access to the water.

This might be the place where the community used to come

to meet, to celebrate.

But it is indication of the society which is flourishing.

They planned the city, they built it.

This is unparalleled, this is wonderful

We are compelled to say that it must have been some

weather variations and changes

When the temperature rises,

when the fertility of the land is undermined,

when there are lesser rains,

the food supply is diminishing.

And it affects the growth of populations.

So once this decline comes in, the city cannot sustain itself.

So under its own weight, the city starts dying.

This gradual vacating the towns

happened slowly and very imperceptibly.

But it was definite march of the people from this region.

The civilisation lost its vigour