Evans, Arthur John (1851–1941)

English archaeologist. His excavations at Knossos on Crete uncovered a vast palace complex, and resulted in the discovery of various Minoan scripts. He proved the existence of a Bronze Age civilization that predated the Mycenean, and named it Minoan after Minos, the legendary king of Knossos.

From 1889, his excavations covered 35 years and also revealed evidence of an earlier Neolithic (New Stone Age) culture. The chief publications detailing his Cretan discoveries are Scripta Minoa (two volumes, 1909 and 1952), and four volumes on The Palace of Minos (1921–36). An earlier work, Essay on the Classification of Minoan Civilization, set out a chronological scheme of Aegean archaeology which, though long accepted, has since come under dispute.

Evans was born at Nash Mills, Hertfordshire, the son of the archaeologist and numismatist (coin collector) John Evans, an authority on the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe. Educated at Oxford and at Göttingen, Germany, he travelled in Finland, Lapland, the Balkans, and Crete. He entirely reorganized the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, while keeper 1884–1908. He was extraordinary professor of prehistoric archaeology at Oxford. Knighted 1911.