But Dr. Evans was persuaded
that Knossos was the spot where exploration was most likely to
be rewarded, and his purchase of part of the site of Kephala in
1895 was the beginning of a series of campaigns which have had
results not less romantic than those of Schliemann, and even more
important in their additions to our knowledge of the prehistoric
AEgean civilization.
The political troubles of the time were unfavourable to exploration.
Fighting was going on in the island, and religious prejudices ran
very high. When the new political order came into being with the
appointment of Prince George of Greece as Commissioner, an obstacle
was still found in the way in the shape of a French claim to prior
rights of excavation. This, however, was finally withdrawn on the
advice of Prince George, and in the beginning of 1900 Dr. Evans
was at last able to secure the remainder of the site, and on March
23 in that year excavation began, and was carried on with a staff
of from 80 to 150 men until the beginning of June.
Almost at once it became apparent that the faith which had fought
so persistently for the attainment of its object was going to be
rewarded. The remains of walls began to appear, sometimes only a
foot or two, sometimes only a few inches below the surface of the
soil, and by the end of the nine weeks' campaign of exploration
about two acres of a vast prehistoric building had been unearthed--a
palace which, even at this early stage in its disclosure, was already
far larger than those of Tiryns and Mycenae.
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