2013 in archaeology

Excavations

• May
  • Excavations conducted at the Sobibór Museum in Poland unearth an escape tunnel made by victims of the Holocaust in the Sobibor extermination camp.
  • Excavation of Portuguese carrack Esmeralda, wrecked off the coast of Oman in 1503, by David Mearns begins.
• Excavation of abandoned Bradford Park Avenue football stadium in England begins.
• Excavation and recording of the large-scale military terrain model of the Battle of Messines (1917) on Cannock Chase in England is conducted.
• Excavations of the Roman site at Bloomberg London, beginning in 2010 and including discovery of the Bloomberg tablets, end.
• Excavations conducted in Kaarina found ruins of oldest church building in Finland.
• Salah Hussein A. Al-Houdalieh of Al-Quds University led a five-week excavation at the Byzantine Church of Khirbet et-Tireh in Palestine.

Exploration

• September - Service tunnel network beneath Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, Italy.

Finds

• February 4 - DNA evidence confirms that bones found in 2012 at the site of Greyfriars, Leicester, are those of King Richard III of England (k. 1485).
• April - Burial of 5 Celtic warriors at Buchères in France discovered.
• May - Happisburgh footprints, the oldest hominin footprints outside of Africa, dating to more than 800,000 years ago, are discovered on the beach at Happisburgh, Norfolk, England.
• June - Chactún, a Mayan ruin, is discovered in Campeche, Mexico.
• July
  • A substantial and well-preserved section of the Willington Waggonway, an 18th century wooden railway on Tyneside in England, is found.
  • The unexpected discovery of Pacific walrus bones among 19th-century human burials in St Pancras Old Church graveyard in London (in advance of High Speed 1 railway works) is reported.
• August - A 500-kg bronze statue of Apollo is found by Palestinian fisherman Joudat Ghrab. Dated between the 5th and the 1st century BC, the statue is seized by Hamas officials after briefly appearing on eBay.
• September - Wreck of Lake freighter (sank 1953) located in Lake Superior.
• November - The Seaton Down Hoard of 22,888 Roman coins is found by metal detectorists in Devon, England.
• A grave and first remains of what will be identified as the oldest human burial in Africa – a 3-year old named Mtoto by archaeologists – from 78,000 years BP are located in Kenya.
• Wreck found in Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua, subsequently thought to be French ship Beaumont (1762).
• A draft of the Olive Branch Petition found in the attic of the Morris-Jumel Mansion among papers that had been donated in the early 20th century.

Events

• A wreck found off the coast of modern-day Sweden is identified as the Danish flagship Gribshunden (sank 1495).
• Experimental archaeology: Construction of Campus Galli, a replica Carolingian monastic community in Meßkirch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, according to period techniques, begins.

Deaths

• 6 June: Malcolm Todd, English archaeologist of the Roman Empire (b. 1939)
• 24 June: Mick Aston, English archaeologist notable for his work with Time Team (b. 1946)

References

References

1. (2013-06-05). "Próba ucieczki z obozu zagłady. Odkryli nieznany tunel w Sobiborze". [[Gazeta Wyborcza]].
2. (2016-03-14). "A Portuguese East Indiaman from the 1502–1503 Fleet of Vasco da Gama off Al Hallaniyah Island, Oman: an interim report". [[International Journal of Nautical Archaeology]].
3. (2017). "Breaking Ground: Art, Archaeology and Mythology". [[National Football Museum]].
4. (2014). "Messines Model, Cannock Chase, Staffordhire: Excavation and Survey 2013". No Man's Land for Staffordshire County Council.
5. Leppänen, Mari. (2013-09-04). "Suomen vanhin kirkko löytyi". Yle.
6. Al-Houdalieh, Salah H.. (2014). "The Byzantine Church of Khirbet et-Tireh". Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies.
7. (2013-02-04). "Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king". [[BBC News]].
8. (2013-04-16). "Celtic Burials Discovered in France". Archaeological Institute of America.
9. Ghosh, Pallab. (2014-02-07). "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk". BBC News.
10. Gannon, Megan. (2013-06-20). "Ruins of Maya City Discovered in Remote Jungle". [[Live Science]].
11. (31 January 2017). "The Willington Waggonway Research Programme". [[Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums]].
12. Foch, Alex. (2013-08-13). "Why Was A Walrus Found Buried Next To 8 Human Bodies In King's Cross?". Londonist.
13. "'Priceless' bronze statue of Greek god Apollo found in Gaza Strip". [[The Guardian]].
14. (2013-10-07). "'Deepest' Great Lakes shipwreck found near Thunder Bay: Scotiadoc found largely intact near Trowbridge Island". [[CBC News]].
15. Press Association. (2014-09-26). "Roman coin hoard, one of the largest found in UK, unearthed by builder". The Guardian.
16. (2021). "Earliest known human burial in Africa". [[Nature (journal).
17. Handy, Gemma. (2021-07-25). "Excitement over wooden shipwreck found in Antigua's seabed". BBC News.
18. "An Intern Saved a Museum by Finding This Revolutionary War Treasure in the Attic".
19. Barron, James. (2014-01-01). "Letter Tied to Fight for Independence Is Found in Museum's Attic". The New York Times.
20. Warming, Rolf. (2015-07-01). "Gribshunden: Significance and Preliminary Investigations". Society for Combat Archaeology.
21. (25 June 2013). "Mick Aston obituary". [[The Guardian]].