Arthur Evans (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Sir Arthur John Evans 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. Evans was the first to define Cretan scripts Linear A and Linear B as well as an earlier pictographic writing. Along with Heinrich Schliemann, Evans is considered one of the 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 and Evans visited Schliemann's sites. Schliemann had planned to excavate at Knossos himself but reached the end of his 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 it from his own concept - the Minoan. Some of his theories about Minoan and Aegean civilization were discredited and proven wrong in the decades following his death.