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For other persons named Arthur Evans, see Arthur Evans (disambiguation).

Sir Arthur John Evans (July 8, 1851, Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, England–July 11, 1941, Youlbury, Oxford, England) was a British archaeologist. He is best remembered for uncovering the Bronze Age civilization on the Greek island of Crete which he dubbed "Minoan", in reference to the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Evans was the son of Sir John Evans, a paper manufacturer and amateur archaeologist of Welsh descent. The Evans home was just outside Oxford. Evans received the expensive education of a gentleman, or that designed to turn the son of a mere manufacturer ("trade") into a proper gentleman: the famous ancient public school (i.e. private school) Harrow; then at Brasenose College, part of the University of Oxford; and finally at the University of Göttingen in Germany, to give the young man some foreign polish. This education emphasised the Classics, i.e. Ancient Greek and Latin and their associated civilisations, and Evans developed an enthusiasm for them. Archeology did not yet exist as a subject of academic study, but he inherited his father's interest in the area. He also inherited his father's money (and before his death, was given an ample allowance), so he never had to worry about earning an income. One of the jobs he took was as curator of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from 1884 to 1908.

As Schliemann was associated with the discovery and excavation of Troy, so Evans is linked with Knossos and the Minoan civilization. Both men were individuals with strong, some would say arrogant, views, pursuing a dream of proving that a mythological culture really once existed.

Evans's special interest was the Greek island of Crete, and he was largely responsible for the excavations of the palace-city of Knossos, chief centre of the Minoan civilization, which uncovered the site that is open to visitors today. Not only did he discover these remains and publish them in four volumes The Palace of Minos at Knossos (1921–1935), a classic of archaeology, but he substantially restored and partially reconstructed them, using some foreign materials like concrete that are offensive to purists but help the average visitor "read" the site. While many of his contemporaries were interested in removing items of interest from the sites they uncovered, Evans wanted to turn Knossos into a museum where Minoan culture could become tangible, as he was far more interested in building a whole vision of the past than simply displaying its riches.

Though deciphering and translating the scripts found on the site always eluded him, Evans recognized that they were in two scripts, which he dubbed "Linear A" and "Linear B". He - correctly, as it turned out - suggested that Linear B was written in a language that used inflection.

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 for Bronze Age Greek civilization based upon his dating of Knossos and other Minoan palaces ran contrary to Wace's dating of Mycenae, which saw its heyday in the midst of Knossos' decline, as well as Blegen's discovery of Linear B tablets at Pylos, which he (correctly) speculated were, in fact, Greek. Nevertheless, Evans generated strange and convoluted explanations for these findings, and in enmity, he actually used his influence to have Wace removed from his tenured position at the British School of Archaeology in Athens.

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.

The excavation at the site of Knossos (which he purchased in order to preserve it), has been continued to the present day by the British School of Archaeology, Athens.

He was extremely short-sighted, which meant he could easily scrutinise the thousands of seal stones which the excavations turned up. These intricately carved, tiny stones depict mythological and actual scenes that repay close study.

[edit] See also

• Lewis Evans, his brother, a scientific instrument collector and businessman
• Duncan Mackenzie, a fellow archaeologist, Evans' right-hand man at Knossos

[edit] Further reading

• Evans, Joan. Time and Chance: The Story of Arthur Evans and His Forebears. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1943.
• MacGillivray, Joseph Alexander. Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth. New York: Hill & Wang, 2000 (hardcover, ISBN 0224043528); London: Jonathan Cape, 2000 (hardcover, ISBN 0224043528); London: Pimlico, 2001 (paperback, ISBN 0712673016).cy:Arthur Evans

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