Did The Minotaur's Labyrinth Really Exist? | Myth Hunters | Odyssey

[Music] [Music] it's one of the most famous Greek myths Legend told of the ultimate monster a half man half bull that fed on human flesh the minor was so dangerous it was hidden in the depths of a maze it couldn't escape the Labyrinth but then came the ultimate hero Theus who who ventured Into the Heart of the lair and slayed the Beast for thousands of years most believed it was just a story but could the tale of the labyrinth Theus and the minor be true there is a physical historical reality upon which these Greek myths are based one English archaeologist was determined to prove the myth was fact he became obsessed with the idea of the ball and the Labyrinth and in his search discovered A Lost Civilization the boundaries between prehistoric and historic were no longer Harden F this is the story of Arthur Evans and his quest to unearth the Minor's Lair the Labyrinth Arthur Evans was born in 1851 and grew up in the industrial town of Nash Mills 25 mil north of London his father John Evans was a rich Papermill owner but his real passion for Geology made him one of the most distinguished Scholars of the age young Arthur showed no signs of inheriting his father's intelligence and when his mother unexpectedly died the boy retreated into a world of imagination he was gripped by Tales from ancient Greece and his favorite hero was Theus the minor Slayer the minor was the monster son of Minos the king of creit Minos had defeated the king of Athens in battle whose forfeit was to feed the grizzly Beast with the Flesh of boys and girls his body was a man's but his head was ahead of a ball and his teeth were a teeth of a Lon and with them he tore his prey Prince Theus the son of the king of Athens was determined to end the contract and by killing the minor win the love of his father but Minos had hidden the beast in a labyrinth beneath his Palace people went in in but no one ever came out he went down winding paths among the rocks under caverns and arches over heaps of falling stone at the heart of the lair Theus found the minor and charged at the Beast [Music] and drove the king sword through his throat the minor was dead Theus escaped into the sunlight young Evans had no idea the story would lead him to make one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th [Music] century but by the age of 24 he'd had enough of just reading about Adventure he wanted to live it himself to make his own mark on History his father the great John Evans had set the bar high with his discoveries of stone AG Britain All Sons of Great Men strugg and they struggle under their father's Shadow and I don't think Evans is any exception to that Evans was referred to as little Evans so I think this may may have been a bit difficult for him Evans was determined to find a way to prove himself he sees himself as kind of an adventurous character out of a novel almost because he's heading off for adventure and he knows that there's it's going to be quite dangerous so he set off for the most treacherous place he could think of the Balkan states of Eastern Europe ruled by the crumbling Ottoman Empire but things didn't go quite to plan Evans was arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia he was released but went on to be failed again and was finally deported for encouraging Rebellion he'd had Adventure but despite it all still hadn't found his real purpose back in England Evans struggled to find a job until in 1884 family connections secured him a low-paid role in the backwaters of Oxford he was now Keeper of the ashmolean museum in char of a neglected collection of ramshackle Antiquities action would be thin on the ground but it was the ideal place to indulge his passion for ancient history and he hoped find a subject to study that might enable him to match the achievements of his famous father evans's timing to make a name for himself couldn't have been better Queen Victoria basked in the glow of a self-proclaimed Golden Age ruling over an Empire that stretched so far around the globe it was said the Sun never set on her domains Britain saw itself as the intellectual capital of the world inventing the steam engine the telephone and the first light bulb Engineers like isombard Kingdom Brunell were pushing the boundaries with architectural Feats like Paddington Station the world's first underground Railway and the largest ship ever built the Great Easter scientists around the world were making headline news chemists were filling the periodic table with new elements at a rate of almost 1 a year Darwin was questioning the origins of man whilst Pioneers in the emerging field of archaeology focused on the question of where this impressive Western Civilization had come from this is a moment when European countries you know feel very powerful and intellectuals turn toward historical questions with the kind of confidence or desire to organize the past people want to systematically explore what's underneath the ground at the time most people believed Classical Greece was the birthplace of Western civilization around 500 BC the Greeks had invented an advanced culture they'd influenced every European civilization since the evidence was everywhere buildings statues art literature mathematics science as well as big ideas about the universe democracy Crime and Punishment some people doubted these had existed in Europe before the Greeks until archaeology began to overturn traditional beliefs Evans had been captivated by news of Hinrich schleman a German archaeologist who gone in search for the legendary city of Troy and found it in a Turkish Hillside everyone thought it was a myth he notifies the world this is it I've discovered Troy the ancient Greek Storyteller Homer had made the old folk tale famous telling of Paris of Troy whooped with Helen the queen of Sparta sparking a bloody war between the Trojans and the Greeks and this is really the first moment when anybody starts to believe that these myths that survived from The Classical period aren't just myths but are based somehow in history that myth might be real created a press sensation but schleman didn't stop [Music] there he went on to the Fortress at myi in Mainland Greece where he claimed to discover the gold old Rich tomb of its legendary King Agamemnon who' led the Greek armies into the Trojan War within the city walls these very very rich burials one of which has this gold mask and he said I've gazed upon the face of Agamemnon my seni was at least a thousand years older than the classical Greek period were the origins of European civilization more ancient than previously believed discover the past with exclusive ancient history documentaries and AdFree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from history hit watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device download the app now to explore everything from the wonders of Pompei to the rebellion of buddika and the mysteries of prehistoric Scotland immerse yourself in the captivating stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the description he confirms that there is a physical historical reality upon which these Greek myths are based and that is extraordinary Evans wasn't convinced Shan's discoveries were enough to rewrite the history books so in 1883 he went to see the famous Treasures for himself but Evans quickly saw schleman was on to something the treasures were clearly made with extraordinary skill coupled with impressive architecture and art this was evidence of an ancient High culture you can see he's starting to realize wow wouldn't it be great to find a preg Greek civilization that was the foundation of the classical era but Evans knew schleman was missing something vital something all sophisticated societies had writing Shan was looking for minini rich in Gold he found the gold schan wasn't looking for script history was defined by what had been written down in the past anything that had happened before writing existed was just folklore if the stories of ancient battles and mythical Kings had been real the people alive at the time must have had writing to record it they'd have needed text to build palaces and fortresses to make impressive jewelry amongst the rubble of Troy and myi there had to have been a script without it there was no historical proof proof the Myans were the founders of European civilization instead of the classical [Music] Greeks couple buildings a tomb that's nice without a language what do you have not a whole lot Evans Saw His opportunity if he could find a preg Greek script he would rewrite European history in a stroke and he would no longer be little Evans he would secure his place alongside his distinguished father schleman is getting all the headlines his father had gotten all the headlines I think Evans wanted to get his own headlines and so began evans's quest to find the origin of Europe's High culture it was a journey that had draw him into his favorite childhood story if the Trojans the Myans and King Agamemnon had been real was the minor Legend based on fact too all these characters are real is Theus real is the minor then real perhaps there was a labyrinth 1888 Oxford England back at the ashmolean Museum evans's Theory remained just that with no evidence of a preek script he'd reached a dead end until his first clue unexpectedly landed on his desk a priest the Reverend grevel Chester had donated his collection of ancient seal Stones he bought them in bazaars across Greece in the Middle East Evans was told some of the stones may be from the area around myi and some had come from the island of creit the home of the minor myth when Evans first gets his hands on them he he knows that there's a link through to what Shan's been finding on the Greek mainland they were small semi-precious stones red and green Jasper amethyst and cornelian used to sign for goods or documents by stamping their imprint into clay or wax like a signature but as he examined them Evan saw they were inscribed with minute images and symbols he had never seen before until now these Stones had just been collected as curios by wealthy tourists on their travels but Evans wondered if the images could be the ancient writing he was looking for and one in particular clearly fascinates Evans it is a uh Prismatic stone that is to say each side has a different um carving on it and so a different sort of image is made by impressing each side Evans spends a lot of time looking at this and this is I think one of the pieces of evidence that builds the argument in evans's mind that there is a language to translate the stones were an intriguing clue that writing may have existed before the classical Greeks but Evans knew he'd need a lot more Stones if he was going to identify a complete script and he needed to prove if it was a text it was older than the Greek alphabet [Music] his next breakthrough came on a trip to Rome where he met a pioneering field archaeologist federo halar he was an expert on the island of creit he told Evans that creeton farmers regularly dug up ancient seal Stones all were inscribed with mysterious imagery and were worn by locals as necklaces and he told Evans something else the prime spot to find the stones was a place called canosos the site was rumored to hide the Lost Palace of the mythical King Minos who' built a labyrinth to contain the Raging minor Evans was intrigued it was Dawning on him that the origin of the earliest European writing could be entwined with the minor myth and both Mysteries might unravel at kosas [Music] INR but before he could even think about a dig he wanted to decode the seal Stone secrets and to prove the symbols were from a preg Greek civilization he needed more of them a trip to Athens had paid dividends he'd found Stones just like the Museum's gems in a flea market near the Acropolis the merchants insisted they'd come from creit Evans was puzzled by the symbols he could see pictograms of animals and people as well as more abstract symbols that appeared in groups all like Egyptian hieroglyphs but quite unique he had no way of telling which way they were read or what they said but was he looking at a preg Greek language he knows that they have something to say they're going to tell a big story and he wants to be the person to tell that story Evans had to take his research one step further and that meant going to the source of the sealstones cre [Music] Evans was well versed in the ancient writings about cre as he sails down to creit for the first time he must have been very very excited and as you come in from the West he could actually see this landscape that he' heard about from the ancient authors after 6 years studying the seal Stones Evans climbed the hill at canosos in search for the remains of the Legendary Palace of King Minos the home of the dreaded minor you know it's in the middle of an olive field things do grow over it sort of looks like an abandoned archaeological site he jumps down into one of the trenches these were very deep trenches down in the bottom he finds the walls Evans made an instant Discovery he recognized symbols carved into the stone wall the marks of an ancient [Music] world he sees engraved markings in some cases identical to the hieroglyphic script that he's been looking at working on collecting trying to figure out this makes Evans realize here is direct evidence of of the script a wall was engraved with symbols Evans had seen on some of the seal Stones there was now no doubt in his mind surely he was on the trail of the earliest writing in Europe then he made another discovery which fired his imagination even more it all becomes very real for him because he sees what we call the double axe the double-headed axe was called a labris an ancient weapon and some believed the sacred symbol of an early incarnation of the Greek's greatest god Zeus myth told of Minos and Zeus's Alliance Evans was convinced the mark proved the building had been minus' Palace he believed the word Labis was very similar to the Greek labyrinth was there a connection was this the first stage in uncovering the truth about the minor Legend Evans a man of science found himself becoming Bewitched not just by the quest to find the origins of European civilization but the desire to find out the truth behind the myth to dig up kosis Secrets Evans had to get permanent access to the site he realized he had to own the land as Evans stood on the on Hill at kosas he realized that if he was going to beat out all the other suitors he had to own it as he'd done with the seal Stones he had to own the artifact of the site itself so he set about instantly trying to acquire it Evans left a local agent to land the deal and returned to Oxford to make an [Music] announcement during evans's travels around creit he' bought a considerable number of seal stones with more symbols to analyze he' managed to identify more than 80 different characters and he suspected he'd found not one but two variations of an early script he presents a paper basically saying that uh you know this is the earliest script in Europe and so it's a huge huge coup Evans had identified pictograms on some seal Stones images to signify animals and objects but other Stones had abstract symbols engraved in a line a linear text Evans wondered if this was the emergence of an alphabet for European scholars in in 1894 the idea that there was this really really early script that the means are using is a major breakthrough because this is part of their definition for civilization if you're civilized you write history it's huge because it's a publication that argues that there's an Undiscovered language that he's brought to the surface what it does is he it Stakes evans's claim as a big player in that field Evans had a tantalizing glimp of ancient writing that might predate Classical Greece by thousands of years he wondered if a meinian civilization on creep was the true cradle of Western Europe but to prove it he needed more evidence of writing than just seal Stones if this ancient Society was Advanced it had to have had vast amounts of writing there had to be literature a script to govern an Empire on a material that could survive Millennia like clay [Music] tablets Evans waited for news on his land sale war was now Brewing over cit's independence from the Ottoman Empire but he was undeterred on the 6th of May 1896 he paid out £235 for a quarter share of canosos equivalent to 22,000 in today's money by law he could now Force the other owners to sell their shares and become the outright owner of the site there is a great sense of luck about um uh Evans being there at the right time and being having the money to buy the land at the right moment and I think time chance was everything as far as evidence was concerned nobody else can come in and take the prize away from him and so this is a huge moment for Evans this is going to be his big Discovery this is this is what's going to turn him into schan the Creon conflict forced Evans to suspend his plans for 2 years but by September 1898 the war was finally over with the Ottomans expelled from the island now at last Evans could dig but full access to kosas wasn't going to be cheap buying just a quarter of the land had cleaned Evans out to buy the rest and fund a dig he wanted to raise a staggering £5,000 worth more than half a million today so Evans ends up being supported once Again by his father but his father gladly supports him Evans may have been ambivalent about this but he certainly accepts the aid with his money troubles solved Evans went on a spending spree London's region Street and padelli circus were the shopping destination for the well-healed Explorer here gentlemen could buy guns specialist canned foods and the latest exploration clothing and Evans wasn't going to economize his shopping list totaled £56 And1 Shilling the same as a worker's annual [Music] salary and so he's criticized for you know having lavish tastes he has champagne he brings all his food out hampers of all kinds of [Music] goodies 1900 cre after a long voyage by ship Evans stepped ashore he was now the outright owner of the site but after 16 years as a museum curator he was completely out of his depth Evans knows that he he doesn't really have the digging expertise required to handle such a huge project he may have felt a bit daunted by the whole thing he needed somebody with [Music] experience Evans needed someone who spoke the local languages could manage a vast number of workers and document any fines he knew the right man for the job so Evans uh sent a telegram to Duncan McKenzie and McKenzie um replied yes on the next boat as it were it was all very very last minute [Music] and the contrast between the two men couldn't have been greater Duncan McKenzie shows up and of course he's the exact opposite to Evans Evans is a diminutive brunette uh Aristocrat Duncan McKenzie is a tall redheaded Scott who loves drinking with the locals unlike Evans Mckenzie was an expert in the field he'd spent years working as an archaeologist in Greece and spoke the language fluently and unlike Evans who had a degree in modern history McKenzie had studied philosophy and archaeology at [Music] University McKenzie hired diggers and the group set off for canosos it was a moment Evans had imagined for 6 years by 11:00 a.m. the men had erected a tent headquarters borrowed from the British Army and run the Union flag up a pole in case anyone was in doubt who was in charge before noon shovels of dirt were thrown from the hill the first fullscale excavation of the Palace of King Minos had begun first off Evans searched for the outline of the building starting with the walls found decades before Evans was probably filled with apprehension he spent so much money of his father's money what if there's nothing there to find what if he's completely wrong but as soon as Evans dug virgin ground in his second week he hit the jackpot [Music] at the highest point of the site there was a clay tub filled with inscribed tablets this is something that nobody had ever found before in Greece or in [Music] Europe Evans discovered hundreds of clay tablets many imp pieces inscribed with writing a similar text to the seal stones but far more advanced Evans called it Linear B it's on a clay tablet so it's not inscribed in stone this indicates that there is a sort of a everyday use of language he recognizes some symbols but not all of them he realizes that it's even more complex than he thought which is of course thrilling to him and critically a discovery of pottery meant Evans could date the clay tablets on the same day they find a stirrup jar a stir-up jar is a very specific kind of a pot um that schan have found many of at myi so it absolutely unequivocally connects the culture of that Evans is digging at Koso with what schan has found at M the pottery was the same style as the meinian finds on the mainland and dated to roughly 1400 BC Linear B was at least 900 years older than the writing of Classical Greece for Evans this was proof the Myans on cre had invented Europe's High culture not the more recent classical [Music] Greeks he's so delighted that he sends a telegram to the times but also to his father and his father replies by sending him a huge sum of money to find more tablets the time newspaper made the discovery public and evans's father was so proud he wired a staggering £500 to his son to upscale the Dig but however grateful Evans was anxious his famous father's support might cast a shadow on his rare moment in the spotlight Arthur Evans writes back to his father and says thanks um and this is very good he said however this is my excavation and I have done this this is my find it's good to keep this in the family but let's remember that this is mine this was something that could not at all in any manner be connected with his father's accomplishment or status but it was something he had made by himself John evans's money was put to good use and more tablets emerged from deeper in the ground but Evans Saw the the writing on these clay tablets was different from Linear B it seemed simpler and even older he called it linear a was this the missing link in the story of the script did linear a bridge the gap between the symbols on the seal stones and the Linear B [Music] text Evans was sure he discovered three stages of writing developed by Europe's most ancient civilized society it was an extraordinary feat and a personal breakthrough finally he'd matched his father's achievements he was now his own man he's making the sort of discovery that allows him to rise up shoulder-to-shoulder with his father but Evans was determined to to go further he wanted to reveal the root of the myth too he wanted to find the Labyrinth and the minor 3 weeks in the diggers were Excavating a room filled with rubble when they discovered a fragment of a wall painting a bull's hoof and this of course rans is the minur this is where a thesis went in to fight have the tangible evidence that you're holding in your hands that links through to the mythological story it was evans's first glimpse of what could be a minor Tor but where was the mythical King in the same room Evans made an even more remarkable Discovery embedded into the opposite wall was an imposing Stone chair he says I have found the first Throne of Europe Thrones of Europe are important things and Evans has found the first one it must have been an extraordinary confirmation of Evans for all the risks he had taken for Evans its owner was beyond doubt it's become the Throne of Minos it's the Labyrinth everything has to do with Minos Minos and the minor and thesis but so far no Labyrinth Evans kept digging finally amongst the debris cascading staircases deep Chambers and long passages began to emerge so he's Excavating through many small corridors and rooms and this no doubt brings to mind this concept of the Labyrinth of course course Evans the man of science believed he'd found King minos's maze but he wanted to find more evidence of the minor then on day 55 of the dig the workers were dusting through the rubble when they shrieked out loud they find the relief head of a bll fresco with B's belly with the tongue hanging out and they leap back and they're horrified because for them this is an image of the devil they'd found a three-dimensional lime plaster Fresco a raging life-size bull nostrils flaring poised to charge Evans sees this as really a confirmation that this is the head of the minor this is literally in three dimensions an illustration from the mythological past it's bringing that mythological interpretation of the site closer to the archaeological remains so you have the Labyrinth and not only that but you have the imagery of the Raging Bull there on the walls in more than one place the public must have been completely blown over by this the myth of the minor and the Labyrinth had been based on something real and he had found it the convoluted building was the maze the bull Fresco were the minor the throne belonged to the legendary Minos he'd even found the image of the king in a [Music] Fresco Evans once a man of science had lost any reservations he may once have had about myth being [Music] true it took Evans 31 years to expose the Colossal building at canosos covering an area of 22,000 square m it was the size of three football pitches and it surrendered more artifacts than Evans could have imagined kosas was an engineering Marvel with a vast Central Courtyard a grand staircase and one of the oldest and best preserved ancient roads in Europe a complex system of aqueducts a sewage system even the world's first flushing toilet Evans had gone in search for the Myans the oldest known Advanced European civilization but as his work on cre progressed he realized he'd found an even earlier Society he called the people of kosas the Minoans they were a highly sophisticated people who' flourished from the 27th century BC many hundreds of years before the Myans had existed the writing of creit had to be Menan in 1911 Evans was awarded a Knighthood for services to archaeology he was little Evans no more but the great Sir Arthur Evans over the years Evans refined his theories the idea of the minor tour was great for generating newspaper headlines but Evans had to admit it was more likely the Minoans had worshiped the bull as part of their religion maybe girls and boys had sailed from Athens not to be fed to the minor as myth said but to jump Bulls as a right of passage could the building with its countless rooms and corridors have started the legend of a maze later archaeologists dismissed his model of the great palace of canosos its design was a product of his imagination he had ignored evidence suggesting a different story Evans discovered a new civilization what he did with it was he turned it into the sort of Civ civilization that he wanted and he centered it around the Greek myths about creit he became obsessed with the idea of the bull and the Labyrinth and what the mythology gave us modern Scholars don't believe kosas was a palace but a temple run by priestesses to worship gods and goddesses who ensured plentiful [Music] harvests there had never been evidence of Minos Evans had found several fragments from different frescos and created his King the occupant of the stone chair is still unknown so why had Evans who prided himself on being a man of science fitted the facts into his own picture of the past had he subconsciously acted out the true meaning of the minor [Music] Legend the minor for the ancient Greeks was something that you had to enter the Maze and overcome in a sense it was a part of themselves had Evans lost his objectivity because of his psychological need to supersede his father had he and his hero Theus been driven by the same desire to win the admiration of their father yes I will make him love me for I will prove myself worthy of his love probably what Theus myth is telling us about is going into a dark place confronting this wild and Untamed part of yourself and then bringing it down basically Theus had killed the Beast and Evans had slayed his demons he'd found Manan writing and what he believed was the origins of the minor myth and he whispered it is [Music] done Evans made mistakes but he was the first to recognize the importance of the seal stones and his discovery of written clay tablets transformed our understanding of the origins of European civilization after his death in 1941 Linear B the advanced writing on the clay tablets was finally translated it was a sophisticated writing system with 187 characters the tablets recorded the ownership of property by local people and their offerings to the canosos temple Evans had been convinced Linea B belonged to his great monans but it was in fact meinian and astonishingly it was the earliest form of the Greek language at least 400 years older than the Greek alphabet but why was the writing meinian rather than [Music] monan today's Scholars think they know what happened the Minoans of cre died out around 1450 BC then the mainland Myans arrived and they discovered monan [Music] writing the Minoans had been writing for centuries their scripts started as pictograms and hieroglyphs engraved on seal stones and evolved into a more complex text written in lines linear a to this day the meaning of the hieroglyphs and linear a is a mystery but experts know the Minoans were writing 450 years before the Myans 1350 years before the classical Greeks Evans had been writing all along Western Europe's civilization didn't start with Classical Greece it didn't even start with the Myans it all began with the even more ancient Bronze Age Minoans and we only know about them because of Arthur Evans we now have a chance to look at this golden age and look at the art from this period and the wonderful architecture from this period and realize that uh this was a really spectacular time for humans Evans had discovered a long lost civilization and in finding Manan and meinian writing had left his own mark on [Music] history [Music]

Channel: Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries

Views: 179,295

Keywords: Greek history, Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries, ancient architecture, ancient cultures, ancient mysteries, ancient mythology revealed, ancient past revealed, ancient ruins, ancient tales, ancient worlds, historical enigmas, historical exploration, historical investigations, historical quests, historical relics, historical research, historical speculations, labyrinth exploration, myths and legends uncovered

Id: YfXZ8Qx9mOs

Length: 49min 3sec (2943 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2024