Arthur Evans
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete at Kephala Hill and for developing the concept of "Minoan civilization" from the structures and artifacts there and elsewhere in Crete and the eastern Mediterranean. He was the first to define the Cretan scripts, Linear A and Linear B as well as an earlier pictographic writing. He and Heinrich Schliemann are considered the two major pioneers in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. Although Schliemann died before Evans got started at Knossos the two men knew of each other. Evans visited Schliemann's sites. Schliemann had planned to excavate at Knossos himself but he reached the end of life before that dream could be fulfilled. Evans immediately bought the site and stepped in to take charge of the project that was then still in its infancy. He continued Schliemann's concept of "Mycenaean civilization" but soon found that he needed to distinguish another civilization — his "Minoan".
