1979 in archaeology

The year 1979 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

 * Tillya Tepe surveyed by a Soviet-Afghan mission of archaeologists led by Victor Sarianidi.

Excavations

 * Hengistbury Head by Barry Cunliffe (continues to 1984).

Finds

 * July - Fossil hominid footprints found at Laetoli, Tanzania, by Mary Leakey.
 * Wreck of SS Xantho found off Western Australia.
 * Wreck of HMS Stirling Castle (1679) found on the Goodwin Sands.
 * Wreck of English ship Swan (1641) found off the west coast of Scotland.
 * Wreck of French-built English ship HMS Invincible (1747) found in The Solent.
 * Burial site related to the 1918 execution of the Romanov family at Yekaterinburg, by Alexander Avdonin.
 * Roman fort at Elginhaugh discovered by air-photography.
 * Black rat bones from about the fifth century AD reported as found in York, the first pre-medieval record in England.
 * The prehistoric site of Isernia La Pineta discovered during the construction of a road link of Strada statale 85.

Publications

 * Aubrey Burl - Prehistoric Avebury.
 * J. M. Coles and A. F. Harding - The Bronze Age in Europe: an introduction to the prehistory of Europe, c.2000–700 BC.
 * Kenneth Hudson - World Industrial Archaeology.
 * A. L. F. Rivet and Colin Smith - The Place-names of Roman Britain.
 * Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History series founded by David Brown, James Campbell, and Sonia Chadwick Hawkes.

Events

 * June 2 - Protesters opposed to the building of civic offices on the site of Viking excavations in Wood Quay, Dublin, occupy the area.

Births

 * February 8 - Stuart Wilson, English archaeologist working in Wales

Deaths

 * January 15 - Yang Zhongjian, father of Chinese vertebrate paleontology, buried at Peking Man site in Zhoukoudian, China (b. 1897)
 * January 20 - Robert Wauchope, American archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1909)
 * January 24 - Raissa Calza, Ukrainian-born archaeologist of Ancient Rome, previously ballet dancer (b. 1894)
 * August 1 - Li Ji, Chinese archaeologist (b. 1896)
 * August 25 - Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, Mexican archaeologist, discoverer of the tomb of K'inich Janaab' Pakal at Palenque (b. 1906)
 * December 14 - Charles McBurney, American-born archaeologist working in Britain (b. 1914)