1939 in archaeology

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1939.

Excavations

 * Major excavation of Ostia Antica in Italy begins (continues to 1942).
 * University of Pennsylvania project at Piedras Negras, Guatemala ends (started 1931).
 * Palace of Nestor in Pylos by Carl Blegen (resumed 1952-69).
 * Tomb of Psusennes at Tanis by Pierre Montet (started 1928).
 * Deserted medieval village of Seacourt near Oxford by Rupert Bruce-Mitford (June–July 15).
 * Medieval settlement at Bere, North Tawton, England, by Martyn Jope.
 * Bowl barrow at Knap Hill, Wiltshire, England, by C. W. Phillips.

Publications

 * Grahame Clark: Archaeology and Society.

Finds

 * May
 * Sutton Hoo ship burial unearthed by Basil Brown and Edith Pretty in Suffolk, England. On July 28 the Sutton Hoo helmet is excavated.
 * Battle of Thermopylae site unearthed by Spyridon Marinatos in Greece.
 * August 25: The Lion-man statue is discovered in the Hohlenstein-Stadel, a cave in southern Germany.
 * Matthew Stirling discovers the bottom half of Stela C at Tres Zapotes in Veracruz, Mexico.
 * Wyllys Andrews discovers the Maya civilization site of Kulubá in Yucatán, Mexico.

Miscellaneous

 * May 6: Dorothy Garrod is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge, the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair.

Births

 * January 15: Neil Cossons, English industrial archaeologist and museum director
 * July 12: Peter Addyman, English archaeologist
 * November 6: Peter J. Reynolds, English experimental archaeologist (d. 2001)
 * December 10: Barry Cunliffe, English archaeologist
 * November 27: Malcolm Todd, English archaeologist (d. 2013)

Deaths

 * March 2: Howard Carter, English Egyptologist (b. 1874)