EVANS, SIR ARTHUR JOHN (1851— ), British archaeologist, was born at Nash Mills, Herts, July 8, 1851, the eldest son of Sir John Evans, K.C.B. (q.v.). Educated at Harrow, Brasenose college, Oxford, and Gottingen, he was elected fellow of Brasenose and was keeper of the Ashmolean museum at Oxford from 1884 till 1908. He travelled in Finland and Lapland in 1873-74, and from 1875 onwards studied archaeological and ethno logical conditions in the Balkan States. In 1882 he was arrested by the Austrians on a charge of complicity in insurrection in Dal matia. In 1893 he began his investigations in Crete, which have resulted in discoveries of the utmost importance concerning the early history of Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. An ac count of his discovery of the pre-Phoenician script and of the ex cavation of the palace of Knossos is given s.v. (See ARCHAE OLOGY ; CRETE.) In 1911 he was knighted. Evans held academic honours from learned societies in many European countries. He presided over the British Association in 1916 and 1919.
His chief publications are: Cretan Pictographs and Prae-Phoenician Script (1896) ; Further Discoveries of Cretan and Aegean Script (1898) ; The Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult (r9oi); Scripta Minoa (1909) ; Palace of Minos I. (2 vols., 1921, 1928) ; and reports on the excavations at Knossos. He also edited and supplemented E. A. Freeman's History of Sicily, vol. iv. (1891) .