Prince George was keen to avoid such massacres, and establish a functioning government on the island. In 1899 a cross-confessional government was established as part of a republican Crete.

Excavations of Knossos

Now that the restriction of the Ottoman firman was removed, there was a great rush on the part of all the other archaeologists to obtain first permission to dig from the new Cretan government. They soon found that Evans had a monopoly. Using the Cretan Exploration Fund, now being swollen by contributions from others, he paid off the debt for the land. Then he ordered stores from Britain. He hired two foremen, and they in turn hired 32 diggers. He started work on the flower-covered hill in March 1900.

Assisted by Duncan Mackenzie, who had already distinguished himself by his excavations on the island of Melos, and Mr Fyfe, an architect from the British School at Athens, Evans employed a large staff of local labourers as excavators, and began work in 1900. Within a few months they had uncovered a substantial portion of what he called the Palace of Minos. The term "palace" may be misleading; Knossos was an intricate collection of over 1,000 interlocking rooms, some of which served as artisans' workrooms and food processing centres (e.g., wine presses). It served as a central storage point, and a religious and administrative centre.

On the basis of the ceramic evidence and stratigraphy, Evans concluded that there was another civilisation on Crete that had existed before those brought to light by the adventurer-archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann at Mycenae and Tiryns. The small ruin of Knossos spanned and the palace had a maze-like quality that reminded Evans of the labyrinth described in Greek mythology. In the myth, the labyrinth had been built by King Minos to hide the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull creature that was the offspring of Minos's wife, Pasiphae, and a bull. Evans dubbed the civilisation once inhabiting this great palace the Minoan civilisation.

By 1903, most of the palace was excavated, bringing to light an advanced city containing artwork and many examples of writing. Painted on the walls of the palace were numerous scenes depicting bulls, leading Evans to conclude that the Minoans did indeed worship the bull. In 1905 he finished excavations. He then proceeded to have the room called the throne room (due to the throne-like stone chair fixed in the room) repainted by a father–son team of Swiss artists, Émile Gilliéron père and fils. While Evans based the recreations on archaeological evidence, some of the best-known frescoes from the throne room were almost complete inventions of the Gilliérons, according to his critics.

Senior trustee

thumb|Portrait 1907, by [[William Blake Richmond|William Richmond]]

All the excavations at Knossos were done on leave of absence from the museum. "While the Keeper's salary was not generous, the conditions of residence were very liberal ... the keeper could and should travel to secure new acquisitions". But in 1908 at the age of 57 he resigned his position to concentrate on writing up his Minoan work. In 1912 he refused the opportunity to become president of the Society of Antiquaries, a position which his father had already held. But in 1914 at the age of 63, when he was too old to take part in the War, he took on the presidency of the Antiquaries which carried with it an ex officio appointment as a Trustee of the British Museum and he spent the War successfully fighting the War Office who wanted to commandeer the museum for the Air Board.

He thus played a major role in the history of the British Museum as well as in the history of the Ashmolean Museum.

Major creative works

Scripta Minoa

During excavations by Evans, he found 3,000 clay tablets, which he transcribed and organised, publishing them in Scripta Minoa. As some of them are now missing, the transcriptions are the only source of the marks on the tablets. He perceived that the scripts were two different and mutually exclusive writing systems, which later he termed into Linear A and Linear B. The A script appeared to have preceded the B. Evans dated the Linear B Chariot Tablets, so called from their depictions of chariots, at Knossos to immediately prior to the catastrophic Minoan civilisation collapse of the 15th century BC.

One of Evans's theses in the 1901 Scripta Minoa, is that most of the symbols for the Phoenician alphabet (abjad) are almost identical to the many centuries older, 19th century BC, Cretan hieroglyphs.

The basic part of the discussion about Phoenician alphabet in Scripta Minoa, Vol. 1 takes place in the section Cretan Philistines and the Phoenician Alphabet. Modern scholars now see it as a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet from ca. 1400 BC, adapted to writing a Canaanite (Northwest Semitic) language. The Phoenician alphabet seamlessly continues the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention called Phoenician from the mid-11th century, where it is first attested on inscribed bronze arrowheads.

Evans had no better luck with Linear B, which turned out to be Greek. Despite decades of theories, Linear A has not been convincingly deciphered, nor even the language group identified. His classifications and careful transcriptions have been of great value to Mycenaean scholars.

Honours

thumb|250px|Bronze bust of Evans at Knossos, Crete

Evans was a member and officer of many learned societies, including being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1901. He was one of the founding Fellows of the British Academy in 1901. He was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1913 and a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1918. He won the Lyell Medal in 1880 and the Copley Medal in 1936. In 1911, Evans was knighted by King George V for his services to archaeology and is commemorated both at Knossos and at the Ashmolean Museum, which holds the largest collection of Minoan artefacts outside Greece. He received an honorary doctorate (D.Litt.) from the University of Dublin in June 1901.

Other legacies

thumb|Remnants of the terraced garden at [[Youlbury House|Youlbury, created by Evans. The stone steps reflect his landscaping style influenced by Mediterranean motifs.]]

In 1913, he paid £100 to double the amount paid with the studentship in memory of Augustus Wollaston Franks, established jointly by the University of London and the Society of Antiquaries, which was won that year by Mortimer Wheeler.

From 1894 until his death in 1941, Evans lived in his house, Youlbury, which has since been demolished. He had Jarn Mound and its surrounding wild garden built during the Great Depression to make work for local out-of-work labourers. The mound and wild garden, with species from around the world, is now held by the Oxford Preservation Trust.

Evans left part of his estate to the Boy Scouts and Youlbury Camp is still available for their use.

See also

Notes

Bibliography

By Evans

  • [Volume 1, Volume 2 Parts 1&2, Volume 3, Volume 4 Parts 1&2, Index by Joan Evans].

About Evans

Further reading

  • Markoe, Glenn E. (2000). Phoenicians. University of California Press. (hardback).
  • Powell, Dilys (1973). The Villa Ariadne. Originally published by Hodder & Stoughton, London.
  • Ross, J. (1990). Chronicle of the 20th Century. Chronicle Australia Pty Ltd. .
  • Works by or about Arthur Evans at Internet Archive
  • Evans (Arthur) Collection at University College London