2006 in archaeology

Explorations

• Tomb of the Roaring Lions

Excavations

• KV63 - the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.
• Ancient pre-Inca pet cemetery dated to the Chiribaya culture found south of Lima, Peru.
• Ancient pre-Inca tombs complex dated to Middle Sican culture discovered under the Huaca Loro pyramid in Peru; 12 ceremonial tumi knives found.
• The Jewish cemetery, Lucena (Andalusia), the largest such cemetery excavated in Spain, is discovered during construction of the city's southern ring road and excavated.
• Portions of Timișoara Fortress in Romania.

Finds

• July - The Faddan More Psalter, a devotional book, is found in a peat bog in Ireland, where it has been buried for approximately 1200 years.
• December
  • Little Horwood Hoard of Iron Age gold staters from Buckinghamshire, England.
  • River Boyne shipwreck of 1530s found off Drogheda in Ireland.
• Inscriptions in an early form of Linear Elamite discovered at Jiroft in Iran.
• Roman sarcophagus found during work at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, well outside the walls of Londinium.
• Defences from the Siege of Leith (1560) discovered in Pilrig, Edinburgh, Scotland.
• Wreck of Type A Kō-hyōteki-class midget submarine, sunk in the 1942 attack on Sydney Harbour, discovered off Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Publications

• Steve Burrow - The Tomb-builders in Wales 4000-3000 BC
• Andrea Carandini - Remo e Romolo: Dai rioni dei Quiriti alla città dei Romani (775/750 - 700/675 a.C. circa) and La leggenda di Roma
• Gwyn Davies - Roman Siege Works
• Jürg Eggler & Othmar Keel - Corpus der Siegel-Amulette aus Jordanien: vom Neolithikum bis zur Perserzeit
• Lars Fogelin - Archaeology of Early Buddhism
• Matthew Johnson - Ideas of Landscape
• Chris Stringer - Homo Britannicus: the Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain

Awards

• June - Barry Cunliffe knighted.

Events

• October - British historian Alex Woolf publishes arguments that the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu was located around the Moray Firth region, further north in Scotland than the previous consensus.
• The Kharosti scrolls, the oldest collection of Buddhist manuscripts in the world, are radiocarbon-dated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The group confirms the initial dating of the Senior manuscripts to 130-250 CE and the Schøyen manuscripts to between the 1st and 5th centuries CE.

Deaths

• June 6 - Leslie Alcock, English archaeologist (b. 1925)
• August 2 - Richard Avent, British archaeologist, conservationist and civil servant (b. 1948)
• December 1 - Bruce Trigger, Canadian archaeologist and McGill University professor (b. 1937)

References

References

1. (18 June 2006). "Italian 'tomb raider' reveals burial chamber".
2. (28 June 2006). "Final coffin opened in Egyptian chamber".
3. "Tombs of Pre-Inca Elite Discovered Under Peru Pyramid".
4. "Tombs of Pre-Inca Elite Discovered Under Peru Pyramid".
5. (26 July 2006). "1200-year-old prayer book discovered in bog".
6. "Record ID: BUC-5D0980 - Iron Age coin hoard".
7. "What lies beneath". The Irish Times.
8. (2006-12-01). "Ancient body prompts new theories". BBC News.
9. (2006-12-13). "Significant Clue to Leith's History Found in Pilrig Park". Alstead Media.
10. (17 June 2006). "Birthday honours: list in full".
11. Woolf, Alex. (2006). "Dén Nechtain, Fortriu and the geography of the Picts". [[The Scottish Historical Review]].
12. (23 June 2006). "Leslie Alcock".
13. Wakelin, Peter. (2006-08-25). "Obituary: Richard Avent".
14. "Antiquity Journal".