More than a century ago in England, a little boy's destiny was shaped when he found in the fields a piece of Roman pottery.  His eyes shone as his father told him that beneath the earth the ruins of many civilizations must still be lying, waiting for people to dig them up.  That little boy grew up to be the man who discovered Knossos and unearthed the fabulous place of King Minos.

The story of Arthur Evans's life is one young readers will find exciting and stimulating.  This book tells how Evans's boyhood dream of finding lost civilizations was reawakened when, as a young man, he met Heinrich Schliemann, the famous archaeologist who discovered Troy and Mycenae.  Though Schliemann did not believe the strange markings on clay beads could be an ancient form of writing, Evans set out to find more stones that might carry the secrets of the past.

What he found on the Mediterranean island of Crete far exceeded his greatest expectations.   Under a wind-swept hill lay the very same Knossos the Greek poet Homer sang about in The Odyssey, a magnificent city ruled by King Minos thousands of years ago. After years of hard and meticulous work, Evans and his helpers completely uncovered the enormous palace and found there not only surprisingly modern plumbing systems, but fascinating paintings that shed new light on the legend of Theseus and the half-man, half-bull Minotaur.  He also found what he had set out to prove--the written language of the Minoans, preserved for all time on large clay tablets.

From the dust jacket