1880 in archaeology

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1880.

Explorations

 * William Matthew Flinders Petrie travels to Egypt and conducts a survey of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Excavations

 * Nicolay Nicolaysen excavates the Gokstad ship in Norway.
 * Heinrich Schliemann begins excavation around the Tomb of Minyas at Orchomenus (Boeotia).

Finds

 * The foundations of a convent, first erected in 670, discovered at Minster in Kent.
 * Varvakeion Athena.
 * The mandible of a Neanderthal child is discovered in a secure context in Šipka cave in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (modern-day Czech Republic) associated with cultural debris including hearths, Mousterian tools and bones of extinct animals.

Publications

 * Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and Juan Vilanova y Piera publish their initial findings on the paintings in the Cave of Altamira, suggesting to initial scepticism that they are of the Paleolithic period.
 * The Journal of Hellenic Studies begins publication.

Births

 * April 11 – Julio C. Tello, Peruvian archaeologist (d. 1947)
 * April 17 – Leonard Woolley, British archaeologist of Mesopotamia (d. 1960)