Arthur Evans was a British archaeologist, born in Nash Mills, England, and educated at Harrow School, Brasenose College, the University of Oxford, and the University of Gšttingen. From 1884 to 1908 he was curator of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

Evans visited Crete for the first time in 1894 in order to study and decipher the unknown script that could be made out on seal stones, he also purchased about quarter of the site. A year later he published the results in Cretan Pictographs and Pre-Phoenician Script.

Systematic excavations began in 1900, when the island had been declared an independent State. The excavations continued at a very rapid pace, and by the end of 1903 almost all of the palace had been uncovered and work began on the surrounding area. Evans continued his work until 1931, with an interruption for the duration of the first world war. He subsequently published his work in four volumes entitled The Palace of Minos^[28]. His chief assistant was the archaeologist D Mackenzie, who kept the basic day-book of the excavations.