1996 in archaeology

The year 1996 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

 * Preliminary survey of Buckton Castle in the north west of England.

Excavations

 * Large-scale, wide-scope horizontal excavations begin at Daepyeong, a large Mumun Pottery Period settlement in Korea (continued until early 2000).
 * Excavations near Bogazköy by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft begin (continued until 1999).
 * Excavation of the Portuguese nau Nossa Senhora dos Mártires (1605–06) at the mouth of the Tagus begins (continued until 2001).
 * First excavation of medieval drain at Paisley Abbey in Scotland.

Publications

 * Matthew Johnson - An Archaeology of Capitalism (Blackwell).
 * Denise Schmandt-Besserat - How Writing Came About (University of Texas Press).
 * Rita P. Wright (ed.) - Gender and Archaeology (University of Pennsylvania Press).
 * First issue of e-journal Internet Archaeology.

Finds

 * July: Mass grave of victims of the Battle of Towton (1461) in England.
 * July 28: Kennewick Man in the United States.
 * August 4: Seaton Carew Wreck in England.
 * November 21: Pirate flagship Queen Anne's Revenge (run aground 1718) in North Carolina.
 * Herxheim archaeological site, a Neolithic Linear Pottery culture ritual center and mass grave at Herxheim in southwest Germany.
 * The Keltenfürst (Celtic prince) of Glauberg in Germany, a life-size sandstone statue of a warrior dating from the 5th century BCE.
 * Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription in Israel.
 * Lod Mosaic in Israel.
 * Croatian Apoxyomenos off the Croatian islet of Vele Orjule.
 * Hermes of Messene in Messene, Greece.
 * Ōfune Site, one of the Jōmon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaidō, Japan.
 * "Great Dover Street woman" from Roman Britain in London.
 * Polychrome wall paintings (dated to 1090) at church of St Mary the Virgin in the deserted village of Houghton on the Hill, Norfolk, England.

Events

 * Yale University Bonampak Documentation Project begins at Maya site of Bonampak.
 * November 2: Sendai City Tomizawa Site Museum opens in Japan.

Deaths

 * January 17- William Lamplough, British archaeologist (b. 1914).
 * March 18 - Jacquetta Hawkes, British archaeologist (b. 1910).
 * September 23 - Stuart Piggott, British archaeologist (b. 1910).
 * November 14 - Martyn Jope, British archaeologist and biochemist (b. 1915).
 * December 9 - Mary Leakey, British archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1913).