Let's start with a civilization that had indoor plumbing

before Rome existed, painted art that looks almost modern,

and built a trading empire that stretched across the entire

Mediterranean. They were doing all of this roughly 3,600

years ago, which means they were one of the most

sophisticated peoples on the planet at a time when most

of the world was still figuring out the basics.

Here's the part that should stop you cold. We have no

idea what they called themselves. We can't read their

writing. We don't know their language, their laws, their

prayers, or their creation stories. And we still don't

fully know why they vanished.

This is the story of the Minoans, and it's also the

story of the man who found them, named them after a Greek

myth that might not even be true, and then rebuilt their

ruins with concrete based on his own imagination.

It's the story of a writing system called Linear A that

the world's best linguists and cryptographers still cannot

crack. It's the story of a volcanic eruption so massive

it may be the real origin of the Atlantis myth. And it's

the story of what DNA testing confirmed in 2013 , that

these forgotten people were among the founding peoples

of Europe itself.

This is what the textbook left out. This is Previously

On Earth. Welcome to Episode 1.