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Person1851 – 1941

Arthur Evans

Also called: Sir Arthur Evans, Arthur John Evans

British archaeologist who excavated the palace of Knossos on Crete from 1900 and named the “Minoan” civilisation

Born in Hertfordshire, the son of the paper manufacturer and archaeologist John Evans, he studied at Oxford. As a young man he travelled in the Balkans and worked as a journalist, and from 1884 to 1908 he was Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Drawn to Crete by the signs carved on its sealstones, he excavated Knossos from 1900, uncovering the palace and a great many tablets, and named the “Minoan” civilisation. He distinguished Linear A and B and summed up his work in The Palace of Minos (1921–1935), and was knighted in 1911. His reconstruction of parts of the palace in concrete and his bold interpretations are also criticised today.

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    1900Evans Excavates Knossoskey figure

    In March 1900 the British archaeologist Arthur Evans began excavating Knossos on Crete, uncovering a great palace, the “Throne of Minos” and inscribed tablets. He named the civilisation “Minoan” after the legendary King Minos.

Themes this person appears in

  • Heroes of Greek Myth1400 BC – 1900

    Perseus and Medusa, the labours of Heracles, Jason and the Golden Fleece, Theseus and the Minotaur, the wings of Icarus, Oedipus and Antigone — the heroes of Greek myth, alongside the real sites of Tiryns, Knossos and Thebes, the first performance of a tragedy, and the sculptures and paintings their stories inspired