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00:01The ancient ruins of Knossos in Greece.
00:05The heart of a civilization that vanished more than three millennia ago.
00:10The mysterious Minoans.
00:12Constructing Knossos is an incredible feat.
00:15The builders lived over a thousand years before the Greeks and Romans.
00:20Knossos was once home to a legendary and pioneering people.
00:28Ingenious ancient builders who may have inspired the stories of Atlantis.
00:33But who were the Minoans? And why did they suddenly disappear?
00:38Today, investigators use the latest technology to reveal a lost world created by Europe's first great civilization.
00:46The Minoans experienced a way of life that we do not see for thousands of years.
00:51Did a series of natural disasters cause this extraordinary society to collapse?
00:57This huge wave, several of hundreds of feet high, destroying everything on its path.
01:03Or did invaders bring about their downfall?
01:07To solve these mysteries, we'll journey deep inside the Minoan capital of Knossos.
01:13This, uncovering buried chambers, and secret codes, will finally reveal the amazing hidden story of this lost empire.
01:33On the Greek island of Crete stands Knossos.
01:37One of the most mysterious megastructures of the ancient world.
01:42Built 4,000 years ago, it was the most spectacular building in Europe.
01:49When Athens was just a small settlement, Knossos was already 500 years old.
01:55We don't see anything with this level of sophistication anywhere else in Europe at the same time.
02:01Now, new discoveries may finally reveal the rise and fall of the extraordinary civilization that lived here.
02:09The Minoans.
02:11Who were these ancient people? And why did they disappear?
02:18This vast set of ruins sprawls across Crete's ancient landscape.
02:24At the heart of the complex, a lavishly decorated chamber with a mysterious throne carved from solid stone.
02:34Surrounding this, 1,500 rooms. Connected by a bewildering maze of passageways.
02:42In its prime, columns up to 10 feet tall once supported a building four stories high.
02:53What was this complex really for? And did this masterpiece of ancient engineering inspire myths and legends?
03:04The ancient Greeks believed that Knossos was once the home of a king who imprisoned a deadly beast inside a
03:11mysterious lair.
03:13A maze known as the Labyrinth.
03:17With a fearsome half-man, half-bull creature called the Minotaur trapped inside.
03:24Archeologist Dr. Costas Christakis thinks that the clues to understanding why these myths began
03:30are locked inside the ruins here at Knossos.
03:34It is one of the greatest achievements in the history of ancient architecture.
03:40But why did Knossos give rise to the myth of the Labyrinth?
03:44Costas investigates hidden features that could provide answers.
03:48It's a complex network of rooms, long corridors, balconies.
03:53We have the impression of a maze-like complex.
04:02Inside the lower parts of Knossos is a bewildering warren of passages and tight corners.
04:09Running thousands of feet in length.
04:12You can lose your bearings with one wrong turn.
04:18Inscribed on the walls, hidden behind plaster.
04:22Mysterious symbols carved into the stone lie throughout the palace.
04:28Can these inscriptions unlock the secrets of this baffling maze?
04:35Was it really the inspiration for the legendary labyrinth?
04:43Costas thinks the sprawling layout of Knossos was a big influence on the ancient stories.
04:49This is the area we are in.
04:51You see how this complex covers most of Knossos.
04:57This is how a labyrinth looks like.
05:02But it's the symbol of a weapon inscribed by its builders that could explain how the labyrinth got its name.
05:09And there, you can see the blades of the double axe cut on the stone.
05:18In ancient Greek, this weapon was known as a Labrys.
05:24And so centuries later, when the Greeks ruled Crete, it's possible that these markings gave the palace its name.
05:32This is why in ancient Greek mythology, Knossos was called the labyrinth of the mythical master Minotaur.
05:43Knossos seems to have labyrinth literally written all over it.
05:48But these labyrinthes were cut hundreds of years before the Greek myths were created.
05:54So could their original meaning reveal what Knossos was really used for?
05:59These marks are cut on the stones used for the construction of important buildings.
06:05They are the symbols of political and religious power.
06:11Like an ancient code, the symbols reveal Knossos' supreme political status.
06:17So what is this place?
06:20Was it simply a royal residence as its lavish decoration suggests?
06:25People think that Knossos was just a palace, but actually it was something more.
06:32Costas believes that massive jars found inside Knossos are a clue that it served an area much bigger than we
06:39see today.
06:41These large storage jars stored olive oil, wine, figs, and cereals.
06:48And all these commodities were the cornerstone of a huge economy.
06:54For Costas, the storage capacity at Knossos is proof it administered a vast Minoan community.
07:01It's something more than a palace.
07:04It is the political, administrative, and economic center of the Knossos state.
07:12Although it may look like a labyrinth, Costas thinks Knossos' layout is in fact an ingenious flexible design that helped
07:20serve a growing population.
07:22This is a multifunctional space because of the way that it could be rearranged.
07:29The big space is divided into smaller ones.
07:35The complex at Knossos was divided up by large wooden doors that could lock shut.
07:48Segregating the space transformed it from a maze-like layout into a series of individual rooms and workshops.
07:59Weavers worked alongside potters and scribes who kept records.
08:08The structure spanned four floors, creating over 1,500 rooms to house a huge army of workers.
08:20So just how big was the city that this palace governed 4,000 years ago?
08:26To truly understand its scale, Costas needs to go beyond Knossos' modern boundaries.
08:34Amazingly, pottery can still be found lying in the surrounding fields.
08:38It reveals where the suburban Minoans lived thousands of years ago.
08:43There are pottery shards everywhere in this field.
08:46Like this one, which is the base of a cap.
08:53Remnants like this can provide clues to Knossos' original size during the time of the Minoans.
09:02Today, Costas uses a drone to get a new bird's eye perspective on the scale of the sprawling urban area.
09:10The drone reveals just how large it once was.
09:14Covering an incredible 300 acres, with a population of around 30,000 people.
09:21The Minoans may not be as well known as the later Greeks or Romans, but they built the first great
09:27civilization of Europe.
09:29The discoveries here change our way of understanding the ancient world.
09:36The intricate layout of the palace helped support a city and inspired the myth of the labyrinth.
09:43Did it also give rise to the legend of a powerful king?
09:47Or the tale of the half-man, half-bull creature, the Minotaur?
09:52And what would it take to bring Europe's first civilization crashing down?
10:10Canossos, on the Greek island of Crete.
10:13The colossal palace city of the Minoans, Europe's first civilization.
10:21The ancient Greeks believed it was home to a king called Minos, who imprisoned the half-man, half-bull monster,
10:28the Minotaur.
10:30A legend that almost seemed true when archaeologists discovered a maze-like complex and a mighty throne room beneath the
10:38dirt.
10:40It's the finest throne ever found till the 18th century.
10:44But other than this seat, no evidence for a king at Canossos has ever been found.
10:51The ancient Egyptians, who lived at the same time as the Minoans, had huge murals with images of godlike pharaohs.
10:59The Minoans did not have, like, what we would call royal iconography.
11:04We know about the Egyptian pharaohs, but the Minoans didn't depict their rulers.
11:10With no such evidence like this at Canossos, can we be sure that a king like Minos ever ruled here?
11:20The throne room is the most important site in the entire palace.
11:25Lavishly decorated walls with stone benches suggest an elite sitting council.
11:32At the center, flanked by two griffins, an intricately carved stone throne looks fit for a king.
11:40But its design hides a curious feature.
11:44At dawn during the winter solstice, the rising sun aligns precisely with the door, illuminating the throne in a sublime,
11:53otherworldly light.
11:57So is this the throne of a king or a seat for a mighty spiritual leader?
12:04Archeologist Jan Driessen has been studying the ruins of Crete for 30 years, but this chamber still hides secrets.
12:11The person who would be sitting on that throne would immediately grab attention.
12:16But who that person was is, of course, a big mystery.
12:19Other areas of the room were also hugely important, as the sun's rays hit them on key dates in the
12:25solar calendar.
12:27In the summer solstice, the light would fall immediately in the corner of that sunken room, probably a ritual purification
12:34basin.
12:35In the spring equinox, the light would fall directly on the door there.
12:42Every element of this room is actually made to enhance certain actions, certain persons at different moments of the year.
12:50This chamber isn't just a high seat of power, but a ritual space for ceremonies that mark out the seasons.
12:58Perhaps this isn't a throne for a king, but a more spiritual leader.
13:03There is something which is connecting this person with ceremony, with religion and ritual.
13:10A priest, maybe? Or priestess?
13:16And there are further signs that society at Knossos revolved around religion.
13:22One image appears again and again.
13:27The bull.
13:30Was this creature at the heart of the Minoan faith?
13:34All visitors to the palace would have come this way up this ramp.
13:39Just above this ramp, you see the bull imagery.
13:43This amazing relief model made of plaster, an attacking bull.
13:48But the bull was also present all over this building.
13:51The bull really represents the symbol of this palace of Knossos.
13:58This animal is a key character in Crete's greatest myth, the half-man, half-bull beast, the Minotaur.
14:06All the stories about the Minotaur could actually be a consequence of bull imagery still being present, even when the
14:14palace was long destroyed.
14:17So why was the bull so important at Knossos?
14:21Jan thinks a curious painting that originally decorated a wall in the east wing of the palace could hold the
14:27answer.
14:29Here we found a really remarkable scene.
14:32You actually see how the bull actually throws a person over his back into the arms of somebody else.
14:39And this is actually bull jumping.
14:42This is an activity that people still do in Portugal, in Spain, in France or in Africa.
14:47You see the resemblance between these two actions.
14:52Some archaeologists think bull jumping events could have taken place right here.
14:58Jan paces out the size of the courtyard.
15:02Modern bull rings are often around 200 feet in diameter.
15:06Is Knossos' central court big enough to hold this extreme ritual?
15:12200.
15:14At 200 feet, it's long enough for bull jumping.
15:18Everything important, what happened in Minotaur society, was probably taking place here.
15:24I mean, they had large feasts.
15:26You could have people cheering from all the balustrades.
15:28And probably one of the major activities which centered their society was this bull jumping.
15:36The courtyard covered 16,000 square feet.
15:42Enclosed by buildings, it may have doubled up as an arena for bull jumping.
15:48Some believe that at the start of the spectacle, a bull would emerge from one end of the courtyard,
15:54and size up the legendary Minoan leapers.
16:00When the bull charged, a bull leaper tried to vault over the beast and land unscathed on the other side.
16:10Pillared corridors on the courtyard's second floor would have made ideal viewing galleries,
16:15where crowds of spectators cheered on their heroes.
16:22Jan thinks the central court of Knossos served more than just the elites who looked on from the throne room.
16:28It was a space to unite the people.
16:31The cohesion of the society is whatever was happening in this court.
16:36All the rituals, all the ceremonies.
16:38So it's really not only the heart of the palace, but it's the heart of Minoan civilization.
16:43This wasn't the lair of the Minotaur, but with all the bull imagery,
16:47I'm sure that this stayed in the memory for centuries, from one generation to the other.
16:52And eventually it transformed the many myths that center around this place.
16:58A picture of a sophisticated civilization emerges from the ruins at Knossos.
17:04But just how much influence did the Minoans have beyond their own kingdom?
17:09Can this tiny island off the coast of Crete reveal how they became an international superpower?
17:16And was Knossos advanced enough to survive a series of devastating natural disasters?
17:35The palace complex of Knossos was the greatest achievement of the Minoan civilization.
17:42Built by a sophisticated island society, underpinned by a strange religion.
17:48It's one of the most incredible monuments of the ancient world.
17:52Even more astounding, this 4,000-year-old structure stands inside a danger zone.
17:59The island of Crete brings with it not only natural beauty, but also natural dangers.
18:04None more destructive than the effects of earthquakes.
18:08A deadly seismic fault line lies just 15 miles off the south coast of Crete.
18:14It rocks the island with up to 30 shocks every year.
18:19It's terrorized the civilizations of the Mediterranean for thousands of years, cracking the stone temples of Athens under the strain
18:28of repeated quakes.
18:30So how did Knossos survive for millennia?
18:37Huge columns, 10 feet tall, once supported Knossos' upper levels.
18:45From the outside, they looked like regular stone columns.
18:51But hidden beneath the outer layer of plaster.
18:55A solid tree trunk, weighing hundreds of pounds.
19:02Together, these columns held up a towering building four stories tall.
19:09A truly ancient skyscraper.
19:12But why would the Minoans have used wood instead of stone?
19:16Could this have been an early earthquake defense system?
19:21The timber columns here rotted away a long time ago.
19:24But Dr. Rodney Fitzsimmons thinks they played a vital role in the structural integrity of the palace.
19:30What originally would have been placed in here is a vertical wooden timber.
19:34And we have one example here, one example down here.
19:38So two parts of a much larger wooden framework that would have held the wall together.
19:45Rodney finds that wood does the heavy lifting in every corner of the palace.
19:50So this entire wall has been reconstructed.
19:53But it gives us a good sense of what that timber framework originally would have looked like.
19:58It forms this wooden skeleton that provides structure, that provides strength to the wall.
20:06Rodney estimates that it took hundreds of tons of wood to keep Knossos standing.
20:10What we have here is a replicament of concrete.
20:13The original column would have been made of an inverted tree trunk.
20:17You can see their massive size, necessary to support the incredible weight of the up to four stories that would
20:26have risen above where we're standing here.
20:29Rodney is convinced the right wood might have been the Minoans' secret weapon that protected them against the most violent
20:36earthquakes.
20:37Could what still remains of the building today reveal what type of tree they used?
20:43The function of the column base is really to raise the wood above ground level to protect it from water
20:48and moisture.
20:49But for our purposes, these bases serve as a handy guide.
20:53Because by measuring them, we get a diameter of 14 inches, which gives us some idea of the kind of
21:00tree that might have been used for the column.
21:03Armed with these measurements, Rodney searches for a tree that fits.
21:09He thinks the Minoans had the perfect raw material right outside the gates of Knossos.
21:15I've basically walked about 20 feet. I'm now in the middle of a copse of cypress trees, and right before
21:21me here is an excellent candidate.
21:23It's strong, it's straight, and it would be relatively easy to convert into a column.
21:29They would trim down the shaft, and then they would coat what's left in plaster that they can paint.
21:36And if we measure the diameter, we get about 13 inches, which makes it perfect to sit on a 14
21:43-inch stone column base.
21:47Rodney believes the Minoans chose cypress trunks.
21:51That's because the wood is pliable and resistant to splitting, even when under immense pressure.
21:56So in addition to strength, these cypress trees also provide flexibility.
22:01So in essence, when an earthquake strikes, the walls can bend and absorb the shocks, and therefore survive the earthquake
22:09intact.
22:11So how does wood absorb the effects of seismic activity?
22:18Stone columns are strong and solid, but inflexible.
22:23So in earthquake-prone areas, they are vulnerable to cracking.
22:29A column made from a cypress tree trunk is different.
22:33It's made up of countless tough fibers, which can flex and slide over each other.
22:40The combined effect is a sturdy column that can bend without breaking.
22:45So when an earthquake strikes, the columns absorb the shock from the ground at their base.
22:51This reduces the motion at the top and steadies the floors above.
22:55They're an ancient but effective defense against earthquakes.
23:02Designing such magnificent buildings, capable of withstanding seismic shocks, made the Minoans masters of engineering.
23:12Constructing the palace at Knossos is an incredible feat.
23:16And it's one that's made even more impressive when we recall that the Minoans who built this palace lived over
23:22a thousand years before the Greeks and Romans.
23:26The Minoans were one of the first advanced civilizations of the ancient world.
23:32An island nation that built an incredible city on a scale unrivaled in Europe.
23:38So where did they get the riches needed to build Knossos?
23:42Were the Minoans masters of more than just architecture?
23:46And could shocking evidence from the coast reveal the knockout blow that struck their society right at its peak?
24:07Knossos in Greece is a marvel of ancient engineering, the greatest achievement of the advanced Minoan civilization.
24:15It was a city center for a huge population.
24:19And a grand arena for dramatic public spectacles.
24:23The wealth in the Minoan society wasn't restricted to the palace.
24:27We see it on many levels widespread throughout society.
24:32So how did they create an affluent and sophisticated civilization when the rest of Europe was building simple homes?
24:40One discovery at Knossos could reveal the key to their incredible wealth.
24:50When archaeologists first uncovered the north entrance, they unearthed a mysterious artifact not seen for over 3,000 years.
25:00An ancient board game with an extravagantly decorated wooden base inlaid with blue glass, rock crystal, and gold from foreign
25:11lands.
25:12And four gaming pieces carved out of exotic elephant ivory.
25:19This single object contains treasures from far across the oceans.
25:25If trade was the source of the Minoans' wealth, what were they offering in exchange for such riches?
25:36Archaeologist Thomas Brogan thinks the answer lies on a tiny island 42 miles from Knossos, just off the coast of
25:43Crete.
25:43Behind me, you can just begin to see the Minoan town of Moklos.
25:48This settlement preserves one of the best pictures of everyday life we have for Minoan Crete.
25:55Moklos is a tiny island, but Tom thinks it played a key role in enabling the Minoans to trade far
26:01beyond their homeland.
26:04He spots something strange by the shoreline.
26:07On the left-hand side are traces of walls which appear to be running down into the water, and it
26:14looks like as much as half or more of the house was lost close to the sea.
26:20Tom thinks the destroyed house could indicate a dramatic change in the landscape, one that conceals how the Minoans used
26:27the island.
26:284,000 years ago, the sea level here was some 12 feet lower than it is now.
26:34By measuring the sea level today, we can see that the water is seven and a half feet deep, which
26:40means that this entire area between the modern village and the island of Moklos would have been exposed.
26:50The lower sea level would have revealed a peninsula connected to the mainland.
26:55We're walking down the largest street in the Minoan town, and now you begin to see how the street ends
27:01as it approaches the harbor.
27:02And you've got to imagine a land bridge, and this street would have run across it and taken merchants and
27:07craftsmen to the mainland.
27:09Moklos was an extraordinary natural formation.
27:12The peninsula would have divided the bay in two, forming a harbor on each side for fleets of ships, each
27:19bringing in up to 20 tons of goods every day.
27:23But were there products going out as well as coming in?
27:29The land bridge that connected Moklos to Crete proved critical on an island renowned for its extreme winds.
27:40It created two coves.
27:42No matter which direction the wind blew from, one side or the other protected ships from destructive storms.
27:50The Minoans exploited this natural formation and used it to help build up a vast merchant navy.
28:024,000 years ago, Moklos was a bustling port, one of the earliest international hubs ever built.
28:13Merchants imported huge numbers of valuable objects as they ventured even further across the seas.
28:20But what exactly were the Minoans exporting that would bring such wealth?
28:25On Moklos, Tom discovers clues inside its buildings.
28:30Over here we have a pounding platform, next to which we found stone tools like this hammerstone, which were used
28:37to crush something on its surface.
28:40Tom believes this was once a workshop for making perfume, where the Minoans processed their most valuable product, olive oil.
28:49Over here we found a basin, which was used to retain warmed olive oil.
28:55And we think aromatic plants, which were widely available in the landscape, were brought in here and crushed and then
29:01seeped into the warm oil.
29:03And then the aromatic perfume that was produced was exchanged for the things that weren't available on the island.
29:10Driven by perfumed oil, harbors like Moklos allowed the Minoans to build a vast trading empire with fleets of ships
29:18sailing thousands of miles.
29:22The oil was exchanged for treasures like those used to make the spectacular board game at Knossos.
29:28They were importing rock crystal from sources in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, gold from sources in Egypt, ivory from sources in
29:36Syria.
29:37Minoans living in these communities experienced a way of life that we do not see elsewhere for thousands of years.
29:43The riches flowed into Knossos to fund its construction and a life of luxury.
29:49The finds from all of these houses begins to give you a picture of the wealth that had been acquired
29:55by the inhabitants, not only of Moklos, but by the Minoan civilization in general.
30:01Harbors like this allowed the Minoans to spread their culture and influence across Europe and the Near East.
30:07But at the height of their empire, their civilization suddenly and shockingly disappeared.
30:13Did a series of natural disasters bring the Minoans to their knees?
30:18And can terrifying evidence reveal the chaos caused by an invading power?
30:363,000 years ago, Knossos was the sophisticated capital city of an ancient superpower.
30:43But at its peak, traces of Minoan life across the island suddenly disappeared.
30:50What destroyed Europe's first great civilization?
30:55Archeologist Jan Driesen thinks a threat came from the sea.
30:59He discovers a shocking disaster at a coastal town called Palikastro, ancient Crete's second biggest settlement after Knossos.
31:09We're actually walking a 4,000-year-old street.
31:13And this settlement went all the way down to the sea, sort of like at least 200, 300 meters down.
31:19But right at the moment when Minoan civilization was at its prime, this was all flattened, wiped out, knocked down
31:26by a terrible force.
31:28So what destroyed Palikastro?
31:34Buried beneath this Minoan coastal outpost, under layers of clay and soil.
31:39Buried below.
31:42Deposits of ash, nearly eight inches thick, give clues to a catastrophic event.
31:52Nearby, archaeologists unearth an exquisitely decorated vase.
31:58But instead of the bull, a new animal takes center stage in the artwork.
32:03The octopus.
32:07Where did the ash come from?
32:09And did its source have the power to change Minoan culture forever?
32:18Jan searches for evidence of destruction in the layers of mud on the shoreline at Palikastro.
32:24You see, like, fallen blocks.
32:27You see a beautifully cut slab, which was like a paving slab.
32:32It reveals the shocking impact on the people of the town.
32:36You see, actually, human bones sticking out here.
32:40I think it's even a skull.
32:42Smashed to smitterines.
32:45For Jan, this level of devastation is a sign that a mega tsunami struck the coast of Crete.
32:51A huge tidal wave came in and transported part of the settlement inland and then drew everything back again.
32:58And then deposited it and destroyed everything.
33:04The tsunami hit the town with enough power to flatten buildings and catapult creatures from the deep far inland.
33:12Imagine what it meant for the people of Palikastro living in these days.
33:16This huge wave, several of hundreds of feet high, traveling at high speed inlands, destroying everything on its path.
33:31But what could have caused this colossal wave?
33:34On the beaches at Palikastro, Jan finds evidence of another natural disaster that struck the Minoans.
33:41This is a very light stone. You see all the bubbles in them.
33:44And we find these things sort of all over the site and all over the beaches of Crete.
33:48And it looks harmless, but it's actually a sign of nature's most violent event.
33:54This is pumice, a type of rock that forms inside a volcano.
33:59What is also interesting is that this floats.
34:03It floats because of the gas bubbles that are caught in the pumice when it's thrown out by the eruption.
34:10But there are no volcanoes on Crete.
34:14So could the pumice have been brought here by a tsunami triggered by a massive volcanic eruption?
34:20The closest volcano is in fact on the island of Santorini, and that's more than a hundred kilometers that direction.
34:30The horseshoe-shaped island of Santorini sits 70 miles north of Crete.
34:36But three and a half thousand years ago, it looked very different.
34:39At the height of the Minoan civilization, Santorini's volcano exploded,
34:45shooting ash 22 miles up into the atmosphere.
34:51As the island collapsed into the sea, it would have displaced huge amounts of water, unleashing a deadly tsunami.
35:02The wave smashed into the coastline of Crete, devastating coastal towns.
35:12Some believe that this tidal wave may have even inspired the legend of Atlantis.
35:18The eruption also destroyed a sophisticated Minoan colony on Santorini, often identified as this fabled sunken city.
35:28On Crete, archaeologists think this double blow of volcanic ash and tsunami resulted in island-wide starvation even for those
35:38at Knossos.
35:39The ash blanketed their fields, destroying the harvest.
35:43It clogged their wells, it killed off their animals.
35:45And the tsunami destroyed their harbor installations and wiped out its trading partners.
35:51These things announced a spiral of decline, and it only was getting from bad to worse.
35:58After the tsunami, some experts believe that the Minoans may have turned to new symbols of power.
36:05Ocean creatures to protect them from threats that came from the sea.
36:08The tsunami brought along like sea creatures, and these sea creatures like argonauts and octopuses and sea stars immediately afterwards
36:16show up in their art.
36:18And so it also means that their religious activities were changed by the tsunami.
36:24The destruction caused by the Santorini eruption and tsunami caused a period of decline that lasted for centuries.
36:32Over time, the memory of this traumatic event may have morphed into the fantastical story of Atlantis.
36:40But archaeologists think the real-life Minoans may have survived only to face a more terrible enemy.
36:46Can new evidence reveal an even darker cause of the downfall of the Minoans?
36:52And what fate would befall the magnificent palace city of Knossos?
37:083,500 years ago, a huge tsunami hit the island of Crete.
37:13It devastated the sophisticated world of the Minoans and may have even inspired the legend of Atlantis.
37:23But amid the destruction, one place appears to have survived a little longer.
37:28The palace city of Knossos.
37:31So what finally brought down Europe's first great civilization?
37:37Leading archaeologist Dr. Maria Vlasaki has come to the Minoan town of Kidonia.
37:42Here, shocking discoveries reveal that a new people were now in charge on Crete.
37:48Among the ruins buried deep beneath the modern city, Maria finds evidence for a change in architectural style.
37:55On top of the small interlocking rooms typical of the Minoan design seen at Knossos, a new layout emerges.
38:02You see here, a building of Minoan period, the buildings had smaller rooms.
38:10And up here are buildings that are bigger.
38:16So who were these new people that constructed these buildings right on top of the Minoan town?
38:23Maria examines the skull of a 16-year-old girl.
38:28It dates to the same period as the change in architecture.
38:32A time when traces of the Minoan civilization begin to disappear.
38:36The skull has vicious, mortal injuries.
38:39This is the hole made by a sword used to open the pieces of the skull by the joints.
38:50Maria thinks the wounds indicate a horrific act sometimes associated with periods of social turmoil.
38:57Human sacrifice.
39:00This is a rare, violent ritual with just two other cases ever found on Crete.
39:06So what drove the people of Kidonia to such a desperate act?
39:10Maria believes this girl was killed by her own people after an earthquake struck the town.
39:16People couldn't explain why this terrible earthquake happened.
39:21They had to give to their gods the most valuable things they had.
39:27And of course, human life is the most valuable.
39:32Alongside the skull, investigators find animal bones.
39:36They killed 43 sheep and goats, a few pigs, and a human being.
39:44Archaeological evidence suggests that this victim wasn't a Minoan.
39:50Maria believes this indicates that a new people, the Mycenaeans, had arrived in Crete.
39:58The Mycenaeans were a civilization on the rise over on mainland Greece.
40:04Archaeologists believe they set sail for Crete in huge numbers after the Santorini eruption and tsunami
40:11to take advantage of the struggling Minoans.
40:15They built up towns like Kidonia to rival Knossos with new styles of architecture and strong belief systems.
40:25Eventually, the Mycenaeans even took control of Knossos, triggering the end of Minoan society.
40:31There was a decline in Minoan civilization.
40:35They changed from one civilization to the other.
40:41The age of the Minoans was over.
40:43But the stories of this once great people would endure far longer than Knossos itself.
40:50Their capital city, the inspiration behind legends, was preserved in the Greek imagination for eternity.
40:57The Minoans should be remembered for their fantastic architecture, brilliant artwork,
41:03their sophisticated administrative system, and their extensive and wide-reaching trade networks
41:08that brought Minoan culture across the Eastern Mediterranean, where it dominated for centuries.
41:15It's complexity, scale, and impressive decoration continues to fascinate people around the world.
41:26The story of Knossos is like nothing else in ancient history.
41:32A unique palace city, the capital of the lost Minoan people.
41:40Knossos was the heart of an empire.
41:42A pioneer of architectural ingenuity.
41:48And a survivor of catastrophe.
41:53Knossos, the greatest achievement of Europe's first great civilization.
42:28A contract the acquired
42:28and above, reading is the greatest association by Channing and 되
42:28It won't come from the top of Liverpool.
42:29A capital explosion of the university has managed to Cadaметik's zaman.
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