Origins of The Mycenaeans

The Homeric tales tell of Bronze Age Greeks known as the Mycenaeans. Who were they, where did they come from, and what relation do they have to modern Greeks? Is there any truth to the stories told by Homer and others about them? Using footage from my recent exploration of a number of ancient Mycenaean sites as well as DNA, ancient history and archaeology, we explore the depths of this ancient and extraordinary people.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
04:11 - The Proto-Greeks
09:38 - From Proto-Greeks to Mycenaeans
14:02 - The Ethnic Name
19:25 - The Rise of the Mycenaeans
25:05 - Era of the Fortresses
40:08 - Conquest of Crete
44:26 - Egypt and Beyond
46:29 - The Trojan War
53:10 - Fall of the Mycenaeans
1:04:26 - Closing

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Music
Track 1: Illyricum - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 2: The Forgotten Gods - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 3: Kapote - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 4: Ancient Stone - Crypt of Insomnia
Track 5: Aetas Romana - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 6: Elegia - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 7: Alpha - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 8: Dark Fantasy Theme - Orchestralis
Track 9: Elegia - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 10: Pluto - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 11: Illyricum - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 12: Aetas Romana - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 13: Invictus - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 14: Aetas Romana - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 15: Aeternitas - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 16: Lunara - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 17: Kapote - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 18: Ancient Ambient Forest - Scorewizard
Track 19: Genesis - Quinten Coblentz
Track 20: Mysteries of Ancient Rome - Scorewizard
Track 21: Equinox - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 22: Elegia - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 23: Illyricum - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 24: Aeternitas - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 25: Foreboding - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 26: Elegia - Adrian von Ziegler
Track 27: Cinematic - Praskmusic

Track 8:

[MELKORBAOUGLIR]

I just visit Mycenae this Sunday. The Lion Gate is beautiful and the Treasury of Atreus is very impressive.

[hmldjr]

I just returned from Greece - I saw Mycenae - I stood in awe.

[aag]

I'm Lebanese and we have about 15% Greek DNA by default. This is because our Phoenician ancestors (who hailed from the northern Levant) mixed with other Mediterranean peoples, including Greeks (and Sardinians). I consider the Greeks as my Mediterranean cousins, and many of them feel the same way. As an interesting aside, Lebanese have Steppe Ancestry as well. Cool stuff. Thanks for the great vid.

[jedgrahek]

Your channel is one of my favorite on all this platform, and (ancient) history/myth isn't even my major focus... your writing and speech are so poetic and inspirational in a way completely unique among anyone else who covers such topics. It always strikes me as odd that you don't have more subscribers every time I watch one of your videos... but it is also true that some of my other most favorite, most worthwhile and resplendent creators, in other fields, also never go beyond a similar degree of popular renown. Thank you for what you do.

[ericcloud]

i just searched last night for a new upload, but no luck, so i re-re-watched the "Origins of the Proto-Indo-European" video :) imagine my elation to have this glorious gift presented front & center on my feed! always a pleasure with FoL

[SwordQuake]

Thank you! I was just thinking about researching a bit about them these days and you uploaded. Keep up the good work. We need more exposure of pre-Christian Europe.

[christophermaguire]

I enjoyed this documentary tremendously so much I didn’t know about the Greeks that came before the ancient Greeks were familiar with.

[josebonito]

Great video class on the subject. Tied a few lose ends on the very limited knowledge I had on this incredibly important, for the time and for the history of the region, before and after the Bronze Age collapse, which is such an enticing topic given that we, as as we I mean experts who’ve dedicated their lives to study that immensely relevant historical event of said collapse, within the most advance indo-European civilizations, or of any in our the planet at the time. It’s unquantifiable the debt owed to people like Homer by humanity in learning of our ancient history as it’s evident how dark it can become digging back when no written records are available, wether in combination with few or any archeological ones as well. Awesome job!

[Karaflas-vx]

Wow... I am greek living in Athens and I want to take my car and visit Mycenae the soonest possible, I was a kid when we went on a 1 day school excursion to Mycenae, I don't remember it very clearly so I need to refresh my memory by going again soon, it truly is an amazing and mysterious proto greek civilisation I am so proud to be called Greek and walking on these giants' steps

[benimtelefoncaliyordk]

Modern Greeks are carrying the blood of Hellenized indigenous peoples. Most of the Mycenaeans were Hellenized Pelasgians and Minoans. Proto-Hellenic elites from the Yamnaya culture made an elite domination in Greece.

These elites mixed in some degree with the population of the greek peninsula that's why Myceneans carried about 5%-20% genes from Yamnaya people and Minoans/ cycladics didn't. This is what the genetic studies have shown so far. BUT, from the most recent study geneticists analyzed a skeleton that belonged to a mycenean aristocrat the so-called Griffin warrior and found out that he didn't have any Yamnaya ancestry like the other ones which means that among Myceneans were also people who were completely hellenised.

[dalestevenson]

Fortress of Lugh. Great video. The Trojan war is a timeless subject. You should make a video about who Herakles really was. I would love to see that, or Achilles!

[vmhutch]

I find it interesting that some people who are committed to the Indo-European origin story of the Greeks are unmoved by the DNA analysis of Mycenaean remains, at various social strata, that indicate that under 20% of the admixture derives from a steppe population. Much the same as the proto Iranian composition of northern Indian populations. I don't get it. It makes sense to me. There was an existing population that they merged with over time. It also makes sense to me that the proto-Indo-European migrations can come from more than one direction, from the Steppe and from Anatolia. Why can't both be true at the same time. Thank you for your hard work and your wonderful videos. Can't wait to see the second part.

[niklasbischofberger]

One of the best, if no the best, videos I ever saw on ancient greece. Please continue your excellent work!

[kathleenmccrory]

The scenery is spectacular. Thanks for sharing!

[panagiotisloukas]

I 've been waiting for this video, since I saw your FB updates in "Agamemnon's tomb". Finally!

[bensondavido]

I really enjoy your videos. This another really informative and interesting one. I’m from Brooklyn NY and I have quite a few Greek friends. I was always fascinated by their pre-classical period. There is a lot of rich history to be learned.

[Saleturn]

One week ago, I was thinking that everyone in the Indo-Europeans video was unconventionally cultured and civilised in the comment section. And it surprised me... until I thought that people were too focused on the rest of the information to start fighting about Greece.

Then I wondered what would happen if you dropped an origin video of Greeks with you being in Greece and all.

And you did! You did it!!! I expect mahem and bickering in the comments. Braze yourselves! This is going to be fun.

[AltaicGigachad]

In the European cartography of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries, "Grecia" included Dalmatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, the coastal area of Asia Minor, Albania, and the Aegean islands (Karathanasis 1991, 9). For the Western audience in Germany, Austria, and Hungary, "Greek" (Greek Orthodox) was synonymous with Orthodoxy (Stoianovich 1960, 290). Regardless of their ethnic origins, most Greek Orthodox Balkan merchants of the eighteenth century spoke Greek and often assumed Greek names; they were referred to as "Greeks" in the sense that they were of the "Greek" religion. During the eighteenth century, the ge- ographic dispersion and the urban nature of the Greek ethnie in the Balkan peninsula transformed the "Greeks" into a Balkan urban class (Svoronos 1981, 58). Hence, the "Greeks" were not only the ethnic Greeks but generally included all the Orthodox merchants and peddlers, many of whom were Grecophone or Hellenized Vlachs, Serbs, or Orthodox Albanians.

Roudometof, V. (2001) Nationalism, globalization, and orthodoxy: The social origins of ethnic conflict in the Balkans. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p.54

[willkiecana]

4:25 they’re known as the aryans too but referring to them as that gets you weird looks. Unfortunately people have thrown out the baby with the bath water so to speak with this one. Hitler believed in the theory of the Aryan invasions, and because of that we can’t even call them by their name anymore. You also have a large group of people who deny they ever did what they did simply because hitler believed in a twisted version of the indo European origin story. I don’t think it should be but this topic, and calling them Aryans is controversial somehow to people. And Aryans in ancient time didn’t resemble Germanic people but they did mix with people of Europe eventually. That was obviously a lie developed by Hitler. The Germans are just another people touched and influenced by the original aryans as many other areas were.

[alanbradley]

This sums up beautifully in a way that makes fully plausible the wide ranging history of the region. I can now read about ancient Greece and Mycenae and be consumed by their achievements. Thank You.