1950 in archaeology

Explorations

• Spring: Explorations at Timna in Yemen by Wendell Phillips of the American Foundation for the Study of Man (continues in 1951).

Excavations

• Excavations at Stonehenge in the south of England by R. J. C. Atkinson, Stuart Piggott and J. F. S. Stone.
• Excavations at Wharram Percy in the north of England by Maurice Beresford begin.
• Excavations at Beitin, West Bank.
• Excavations at Gordion in Turkey by the University of Pennsylvania Museum under Rodney S. Young begin.

Finds

• March 1 - A hoard of Roman coins is discovered at Hordley Grange, Shropshire, England.
• May 8 - A bog body known as "Tollund Man" is discovered in Denmark.
• The Upchurch Hoard is discovered in Upchurch, Kent, England.
• A third premolar is discovered in materials sent back to Sweden by Otto Zdansky from his excavations of the Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian, China in 1921 and 1923.
• Balfarg, a prehistoric site in Fife, Scotland, is discovered through air photography.
• Three Roman mosaic pavements are found at Harpham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
• Stabiae (buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius) is rediscovered.
• The Garima Gospels at Abba Garima Monastery in Ethiopia first become known to Western scholars.

Events

• January 1 - Commencement date (epoch) of the Before Present time scale.

Publications

• T. C. Lethbridge - Herdsmen and Hermits: Celtic Seafarers in the Northern Seas.
• V. E. Nash-Williams - The Early Christian Monuments of Wales.

Births

• January 25 - Phil Harding, English field archaeologist
• Wafaa El Saddik, Egyptian Egyptologist

Deaths

• January 27 - Herbert Eustis Winlock, American Egyptologist who worked for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (b. 1884)

References

References

1. (2014). "Who Were the Ancient Bog Mummies? Surprising New Clues".
2. "Balfarg".
3. Aitken, M. J.. (1990). "Science-based Dating in Archaeology". Longman.
4. "Herdsmen & hermits; Celtic seafarers in the northern seas.".
5. "Nash-Williams, Victor Erle".
6. (1980). "Who Was Who 1941–1950". Bloomsbury Publishing, London.