Archaeological Activity

Federico Albert organised the Italian Archaeological Mission which began excavations at Gortyn in 1898, while two years later Arthur Evans and the British School of Archaeology continued the dig begun by Minoas Kalokairinos at Knossos. Finds were placed in the Heraklion Archeological Museum, the west wing of which was completed in 1912. These discoveries put Crete at the centre of global attention, and large numbers of European tourists and travellers flocked to admire the finds from the time of Minoan civilization at first hand.