1978 in archaeology

The year 1978 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Excavations

 * New excavations at Brahmagiri by Amalananda Ghosh.
 * Excavations begin at Bontnewydd Palaeolithic site in Wales.
 * New excavations begin at Holyhead Mountain Hut Circles on Holy Island, Anglesey, off the coast of Wales.
 * Comprehensive excavations at Alepotrypa cave in Greece begin.
 * Excavation of Proto-Elamite levels of Susa in Iran.

Finds

 * February 21 - The remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan.
 * March - Pictish stone depicting a bearded figure at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
 * Bactrian Gold hoard.
 * A new Shapwick hoard of Roman copper coins in England.
 * Cherchen Man in China.
 * A fossilized partial human cranium is among hominid remains found in Apidima Cave in southern Greece; in 2019 it is announced as dating to more than 210,000 years BP, making it the earliest example of Homo sapiens outside Africa.
 * First discovery of European lion remains at Tiryns in Mycenaean Greece.
 * Wreck of a Basque whaling galleon, probably the San Juan, off Saddle Island, Labrador.

Publications

 * Lewis R. Binford - Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology.
 * Mounir Bouchenaki - Cités antiques d'Algérie.
 * Kenneth Dover - Greek Homosexuality.
 * Richard A. Gould (ed.) - Explorations in Ethnoarchaeology.
 * Keith Muckelroy - Maritime Archaeology.
 * Paleontologist Björn Kurtén's short novel Dance of the Tiger, dealing with the interaction between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals, is published in Sweden as Den Svarta Tigern.

Events

 * Theban Mapping Project is established.
 * September - Thousands march through Dublin to Wood Quay to protest against the building of civic offices on the Viking site.

Deaths

 * August 19 - Sir Max Mallowan, English archaeologist (born 1904).
 * August 24 - Dame Kathleen Kenyon, English archaeologist of the Neolithic Fertile Crescent and college principal (born 1906).
 * October 8 - Bertha Cody, Native American archaeologist (born 1907).
 * November 8 - Terence Mitford, British archaeologist of the Near East (born 1905).