born July 8, 1851, Nash Mills, Hertfordshire, Eng.
died July 11, 1941, Youlbury, near Oxford, Oxfordshire
British archaeologist.
Son of the archaeologist Sir John Evans, he served as a curator (18841908) at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. Beginning in 1899 he devoted several decades to excavating the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos in Crete, uncovering evidence of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that he named Minoan . His work, one of archaeology's major achievements, greatly advanced the study of European and eastern Mediterranean prehistory. He published his definitive account in The Palace of Minos , 4 vol. (192136).