1979 in archaeology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The year 1979 in archaeology involved some significant events.
Explorations
- Tillya Tepe surveyed by a Soviet-Afghan mission of archaeologists led by Victor Sarianidi.
Excavations
- Hengistbury Head by Barry Cunliffe (continues to 1984).
Finds
- July - Fossil hominid footprints found at Laetoli, Tanzania, by Mary Leakey.
- Wreck of SS Xantho found off Western Australia.[1]
- Wreck of HMS Stirling Castle (1679) found on the Goodwin Sands.
- Wreck of English ship Swan (1641) found off the west coast of Scotland.
- Wreck of French-built English ship HMS Invincible (1747) found in The Solent.
- Burial site related to the 1918 execution of the Romanov family at Yekaterinburg, by Alexander Avdonin.[2]
- Roman fort at Elginhaugh discovered by air-photography.
- Black rat bones from about the fifth century AD reported as found in York, the first pre-medieval record in England.[3]
- The prehistoric site of Isernia La Pineta discovered during the construction of a road link of Strada statale 85.
Publications
- Aubrey Burl - Prehistoric Avebury.
- J. M. Coles and A. F. Harding - The Bronze Age in Europe: an introduction to the prehistory of Europe, c.2000–700 BC.
- Kenneth Hudson - World Industrial Archaeology.
- A. L. F. Rivet and Colin Smith - The Place-names of Roman Britain.
- Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History series founded by David Brown, James Campbell, and Sonia Chadwick Hawkes.[4]
Events
Births
- February 8 - Stuart Wilson, English archaeologist working in Wales
Deaths
- January 15 - Yang Zhongjian, father of Chinese vertebrate paleontology, buried at Peking Man site in Zhoukoudian, China (b. 1897)
- January 20 - Robert Wauchope, American archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1909)
- January 24 - Raissa Calza, Ukrainian-born archaeologist of Ancient Rome, previously ballet dancer (b. 1894)
- August 1 - Li Ji, Chinese archaeologist (b. 1896)[5]
- August 25 - Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, Mexican archaeologist, discoverer of the tomb of K'inich Janaab' Pakal at Palenque (b. 1906)
- December 14 - Charles McBurney, American-born archaeologist working in Britain (b. 1914)