Presentation to Sir Arthur Evans

Abstract

ON December 17 Sir Arthur Evans, at a meeting of friends and colleagues held at the Society of Antiquaries, was presented with a portrait bust of himself in marble in recognition of his services to archaeology, and in commemoration of the completion, in a fourth and final volume, of his great work on the excavation of the Minoan site of Knossos in Crete. The bust is the work of Mr. David Evans, a former Rome Scholar in sculpture. It represents Sir Arthur in academic robes and wearing the medal of the Society of Antiquaries, of which he was the first recipient. The greatness of Sir Arthur's contribution to the study of prehistoric archaeology, more especially in the Mediterranean area, was fully recognised by Lord Rennell, who presided, and Prof. R. M. Dawkins, who recounted the more notable achievements of Sir Arthur's career. Lord Rennell, in making the presentation, referred to his work as the source of much of the recent fervour for archaeological research, which is doing so much to reconstruct past history on more solid foundations and to confirm the authenticity of tradition. It is salutary at times to be reminded that in 1900, when Sir Arthur Evans made his first discovery at Knossos, the great bronze age culture of the Mediterranean, which has since been revealed as one of the more salient phases in the progress of man to a higher civilisation, survived only in a haze of tradition.