Evans , Sir , Arthur John , 1851-1941 , Knight , archaeologist

Arthur John Evans (1851-1941) had recently graduated from Oxford University and was travelling in Bosnia with his brother Lewis in 1874 when a Christian peasant rebellion against Ottoman rule began. On his return to Britain, Evans published an account of his experiences and as a result of his knowledge of the Balkans which were at that moment in crisis, he immediately became known as an authority on the region. His involvement deepened as he became secretary of the British Fund for Balkan refugees and special correspondent for the "Manchester Guardian" in the Balkans, based in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), Croatia. His reports however raised suspicions of spying among the Austrian authorities and as a result in 1882 he was arrested for high treason, imprisoned and expelled. Evans retained a concern for the area for the rest of his life.

The papers in this collection relate to Evans' journalistic and political activities in the Balkans, however the career for which he achieved most reknown wasarchaeology. Whilst working as a journalist in Ragusa 1876-1882 and on later visits, he was a pioneer in identifying sites of Roman cities and roads in Bosnia andMacedonia. In 1884 he became keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, a post he held until 1908, after which time he became honorary keeper. In 1894 hebegan travels in Crete. It was here that he made his most famous archaological find with the escavation of the Palace of Minos in Crete 1899-1907, in Greekmythology home of the Minotaur. Evans was also a founder member of the British Academy in 1902 and was knighted in 1911. He married Margaret Freeman in 1878, she shared in his work but died in 1893.