Arthur Evans
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Sir Arthur John Evans (Born July 8, 1851 in Nash Mills, England and died July 11, 1941) was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Evans attended Harrow School and Brasenose College (The University of Oxford and Göttingen).
Before Evans began work in Crete, archaeologist Minos Kalokairinos unearthed two of the palace’s storerooms in 1894, but the Turkish government interrupted his work before he could complete excavations. Evans had been deciphering script on seal stones on Crete in 1894 and when the island was declared an independent state in 1900, he began his excavations of the palace ruins. Arthur Evans found 3,000 clay tablets during excavations and worked to transcribe them. He later discovered the language had two distant scripts and concluded that there was a civilization on Crete before the known Homeric age peoples in Mycenae.
Soon after, Evans bought the site in March 1900 and began to unearth the palace of Knossos. The huge ruin spanned five acres and had a maze-like quality to it that reminded Evans of the Greek myth dealing with King Minos and the labyrinth. Thus, he dubbed the civilization once inhabiting this great palace the Minoans. By 1903, most of the palace was excavated, uncovering an advanced city filled with artwork and many examples of writing. Depicted on the walls of the palace numerous times were bulls and Evans learned that the Minoans did indeed worship the bull.
Evans was knighted in 1911 for his services to archaeology and is commemorated both at Knossos and at the Ashmolean Museum. In 1913 he paid out of his own pocket £100 to double the amount paid with the studentship established jointly by the University of London and the Society of Antiquaries in memory of Augustus Wollaston Franks, won that year by Mortimer Wheeler.
Evans, however, should also be remembered for his own irrationally obstinate Creto-centrism, which led to unfriendly debate between himself and the mainland archaeologists Carl Blegen and Alan Wace. Evans's insistence upon a single timeline of development, climax, and decay before the Bronze Age.
[edit] References
- Evans, A.J. (1901). Scripta Minoa - Volume 1.
- Evans, A.J. (1952). Scripta Minoa - Volume 2.
- Evans, A.J. (1921-35). Palace of Minos - Volumes 1-4.
- Evans, A.J. (1933). Jarn Mound.
- Ross, J. (1990). Chronicle of the 20th Century. Chronicle Australia Pty Ltd. ISBN 1872031803.
