1979 in archaeology

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

• June 2 - Protesters opposed to the building of civic offices on the site of Viking excavations in Wood Quay, Dublin, occupy the area.

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)

References