2003 in archaeology

Explorations

 * Start of Stonehenge Riverside Project (continues to 2008).
 * Identification of Neolithic sources of jadeite on Monte Viso and Monte Beigua in Italy.

Excavations

 * Start of Ness of Brodgar excavation in Scotland.
 * Start of Dungarvan Valley Caves Project in Ireland.
 * Full excavation of High Pasture Cave on Skye.

Finds

 * April - First British cave art discovered at Creswell Crags.
 * June - Staffordshire Moorlands Pan found in England, a Celtic vessel with inscriptions relating to Hadrian's Wall.
 * July - Russian monitor Russalka (1867) located by sonar in the Gulf of Finland.
 * August - Tse-whit-zen village discovered on the Washington coast during construction work.
 * Autumn–December - Prittlewell royal Anglo-Saxon burial near Southend-on-Sea in England, the grave, dated to about 580 AD, of a high-status man, perhaps Saexa (brother to Sæberht of Essex), buried with objects including Christian symbols.
 * Boscombe Bowmen's shared grave of around 2300 BCE discovered in southern England.
 * Cirebon shipwreck (early 10th century) in the Java Sea, containing a large amount of Chinese Yue ware and important evidence of the Maritime Silk Road.
 * Dutch-built fluyt Swan located in Baltic Sea.
 * Roman base silver coin hoard at Chalgrove in Oxfordshire, England, including one of Domitianus, briefly ruler of the Gallic Empire.
 * Iron Age gold coin hoard at Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England.

Publications

 * Wayne D. Cocroft and Roger J. C. Thomas - Cold War: building for nuclear confrontation 1946-1989.
 * Adrienne Mayor - Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs: biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world.
 * Colin Renfrew - Figuring It Out: What are we? Where do we come from? – The parallel visions of artists and archaeologists.
 * Ruth M. Van Dyke and Susan E. Alcock (ed.) - Archaeologies of Memory.
 * Ruth M. Van Dyke and Susan E. Alcock (ed.) - Archaeologies of Memory.

Events

 * July 17 - The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage adopts the Nizhny Tagil Charter for the Industrial Heritage.
 * November 10 - Official opening of the Department of First World War Archaeology in the Institute for the Archaeological Heritage of the Flemish Community (IAP) at Ypres.
 * December 26 - The 2003 Bam earthquake devastates the Arg-e Bam in Iran.
 * Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory group formed.
 * The fake "ancient Egyptian" Amarna Princess statue, actually made by Shaun Greenhalgh, is sold to Bolton Museum in England.

Deaths

 * January 22 - Mary Chubb, English archaeologist and author; worked in Egypt and the Near East (b. 1903)
 * July 30 - Mendel L. Peterson, American underwater archaeologist (b. 1918)