Episode 5 (Aegean Bronze Age Part 2)

Listeners journey through the flourishing world of early Aegean civilizations—with the enigmatic Cycladic culture of the islands, the palatial sophistication of Minoan Crete with its labyrinthine architecture and far-reaching trade, and culminating in the militarized dominance of Mycenaean Greece. Through captivating archaeological discoveries and vivid storytelling, the episode explores how these societies shaped the cultural tapestry of the region, influencing early settlement patterns along the Thracian coast and in western Anatolia, including Troy and the Hittite frontier. Migration waves and colonization efforts across the Aegean fostered technological exchange and mythological traditions that would echo for millennia. As the story builds toward the dramatic collapse of the Mycenaean palace system around 1200 BC—possibly triggered by systemic instability, foreign incursions, or environmental upheaval—the foundations are laid for the coming Greek Dark Age and, in time, the birth of Byzantion itself.