Short and concise syntheses of the hexahydroindene cores of the antibiotics indanomycin (X-14547 A) and stawamycin are presented. Key methods used are an asymmetric iridium-catalyzed allylic alkylation, a modified Julia olefination, a Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, and an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.