Notebooks, diaries, pocketbooks & sketchbooks

The archive holds 92 notebooks, diaries, pocketbooks and sketchbooks of Arthur Evans and members of his Knossos team (Duncan Mackenzie, Theodore Fyfe, Christian Doll). The Knossos notebooks take up about 65% of this section of the archive. They form the most important primary record for the day-to-day documentation of the Knossos excavations.

1. Knossos-related: there are 58 Knossos excavation notebooks (about 5,000 pages). 53% of these diaries have already been transcribed in full by Ian Paterson between 1997 and 2000: 9 out of 25 (36%) of Arthur Evans's notebooks (1900, 1901, 1902, 1905, 1908 and 1910, and 1913 and partially the 1903 and 1922 and 1926); 23 out of 26 (88%) have already been transcribed in full (all but 1904 [vol. 2], 1908 and 1909). The seven notebooks of Theodore Fyfe and Christian Doll have not been transcribed. The Evans notebooks contain 1,210 pages; the Mackenzie diaries include 3,226 pages; and the diaries by Fyfe and Doll about 600 pages. The notebooks have not been digitized.
2. Non-Knossos related: 25 Evans non-Knossos diaries (of his trips to Crete, the Mediterranean, Europe and Scandinavia). Related archives contain four Mackenzie non-Knossos notebooks (mostly on archaeological finds from Sardinia and the East Mediterranean), and transcriptions of four of the travel diaries of Margaret Evans.

B/1 The Knossos notebooks, 26 belonging to D. Mackenzie (1900-1925: 1,612 double page spreads and two loose pages or 3,226 pages in total); 25 belonging to A.J. Evans (1894-1929, including Cretan travels: 550 double page spreads; 100 single pages; 10 loose sheets or 1,210 pages in total); five belonging to T. Fyfe (1901-1903); two belonging to C. Doll (1906-1907)].

B/1/1: Evans, 1900-1930, 36 items in total: diaries 1900, 1901, 1902, 1905, 1908-1910 and 1913 have been completely transcribed in a .doc format; 1903 and 1922-1926 have been partially transcribed; the other Knossos diaries by Evans have not been transcribed.

• Box 9: Knossos Notebooks 32-41, Evans 1900-1930 – 32) 1900 [on display in the museum: 43 double page spreads, 20.5x14.5cm]; 33) 1901 [40 double page spreads: 20x14cm; 6 loose sheets of varied size]; 34) 1902 [39 double page spreads: 20x14cm]; 35) 1903 [12 double page spreads: 20x16.5cm]; 36) 1905 [17 double page spreads: 21x15.5cm]; 37) 1908, 1910 [23 double page spreads: 20x16.5cm]; 38) 1909-1910 [23 double page spreads: 17.5x11.5cm]; 39) 1913 [60 double page spreads: 17.5x11.5; 4 single pages of varied size]; 40) 1900, 1901, 1903?, 1910, 1911, 1917 [32 double page spreads, fresco notebook: 12x18.5cm]; 41) 1913, 1930 [30 double page spreads: 17x11cm])

  B/1/2: Mackenzie, 1900-1925, 26 items in total: they have all been completely transcribed except for 1904 vol. 2, 1908 and 1909.

  • Box 5: Knossos Notebooks 1-7: 1) 1900 vol. 1 [78 double page spreads: 18.5x14cm]; 2) 1900 vol. 2 [28 double page spreads: 15x9cm]; 3) Mackenzie 1900-1902 ? 1900 [ink: 84 double page spreads: 22.5x16cm]; 4) 1901 vol. 1 [93 double page spreads: 17.5x11.5cm]; 5) 1901 vol. 2 [79 double page spreads: 17.5x11.5; 2 loose pages: 11.8x7.3cm]; 6) 1902 vol. 1 [90 double page spreads: 17.5x11.5cm]; 7) 1902 vol. 2 [57 double page spreads: 17.5x11.5cm]; and 3 negatives of Mackenzie 1900 revised)

    B/1/3: Fyfe, 1901-1903, 5 items in total: no transcription available.

    • Box 8 (part 2): Knossos Notebooks 27-30, Fyfe 1901-1903 – 27) 1901 Knossos; 1901 Crete, Venice, etc. [photocopy - original in a private collection ]; 28)1902; 29) 1903 vol. 1?; 30) 1903 vol. 2?)

      B/1/4: Doll, 1906-1907, 2 items in total: no transcription available.

      • Box 11: Knossos Notebooks 56-57, Doll 1906-1907 – 56) 1906; 57) 1907

        B/2 The non-Knossos notebooks

        B/2/1: Evans

        • Box 1: 1873 vol. 1; 1873 vol. 2 (Letters and journal, Sweden and Lapland returning via Copenhagen, Hamburg, Hannover, Cologne and Ostend, landing at Dover); 1875 (North France); 1883? (notes and sketches; Stone Age Greece; Bronze Age Greece, Italy and Illyria; Troy pottery and gold; Delphi; Notes on Etruscan Museum in Florence; Volterra Museum; Naples Museum; Tiryns; etc.); 1889-1890 (Sicily); Copy of catalogue of Saami material in the Pitt-Rivers Museum collected by AJ Evans in 1873

          B/2/2: Duncan Mackenzie Papers, donated to the Ashmolean by Alistair Bain Mackenzie in 1992

          • Duncan Mackenzie, non-Knossos notebooks (1904-1908 or later): 1) 1904: notes on pottery in the museum of Constantinople; Nicosia; the American College in Beirut; Jerusalem; Bethlehem; excavations at Djebel Khalil; Museum in Cairo, etc. (Momigliano 1999, 70, n. 79); 2) 1906: Bronze figurines in Cagliari Museum; prehistoric pottery of Sardinia; Berlin; Sarajevo; Szeksz

            B/2/3: Transcriptions of Margaret Evans

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            Detail from the travel diary of Arthur Evans during his visit to Crete in 1896.

            
            A page from Arthur Evans's notebook from the first season of excavations at Knossos, 1900.