The dig
THE BASICS
Site: Knossos, Crete
Type: palace complex
Date: Middle Bronze Age
Excavator: Arthur Evans (1851-1941)
Date of excavation: 1900-1935 (mainly 1900-1905).
Arthur Evans, the wealthy son of prehistorian John Evans, was ‘a man of independent means’ who did not need to earn his living. After completing his education at Harrow and Oxford, he travelled widely in the Balkans, and made a minor name for himself as the Manchester Guardian’s special correspondent in Bosnia and Croatia. During this time, he studied Balkan antiquities, and on returning to England, he became Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, from 1884 to 1908.
His interest in Knossos had been triggered by a visit to the site in 1894 – a visit made in pursuit of seals with a mysterious hieroglyphic writing that were turning up in the markets of Athens, and that purportedly came from Crete.
