2012 in archaeology

The year 2012 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

 * January - Discovery of a first-century farmhouse on the building site of the new stadium in the south of Marseille.

Excavations

 * June 6 - Excavators from Museum of London Archaeology announce that they have uncovered the remains of the Elizabethan Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch.
 * August 24 - Philippa Langley in association with the Richard III Society, and Leicester City Council, engage University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), and announce that they have joined forces to begin a search for the site of Greyfriars, Leicester, burial place of King Richard III of England. On September 5 the excavators announce that they have identified the church.  and on September 12 it is announced that a skeleton discovered during the search could have been that of Richard III, a supposition confirmed in 2013.
 * October - Remains of substantial Mesolithic buildings are identified in Britain at Echline in Scotland, Lunt Meadows at Sefton, Merseyside and from new investigations at Starr Carr in North Yorkshire.
 * December - Archaeologists complete excavation of a 900-seat Athenaeum from the time of the Emperor Hadrian in Rome discovered during work on a Metro line at Piazza Venezia.
 * Excavation of working-class back-to-back houses from the Industrial Revolution period at Chapel Street in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
 * Excavations at Holt Castle in Wales begin.

Finds

 * January
 * The use of maize in Peru as early as 4700 BCE is confirmed.
 * Evidence for early Mayan tobacco use is published.
 * Discovery that the Vikings grew barley in Greenland.
 * February 17 - Alabaster colossus of pharaoh Amenhotep III is discovered.
 * March - Discovery of an inscribed doorjamb at Karnak giving the hitherto unknown titulary of pharaoh Senakhtenre Ahmose.
 * March - A 7th century grave near Cambridge in England provides an early example of the transition from pagan Anglo-Saxon to Christian burial practices.
 * March 30 - In Georgia, archeologists report unearthing jars containing what they believe to be the world's oldest honey.
 * May - The oldest Mayan astronomical calendar discovered so far, from the 9th century, is reported from Xultun.
 * May 9 - Archaeologists announce discovery on The Burren in Ireland of evidence of settlement from 6000 BCE.
 * May 19 - The National Trust for Scotland announce that the first cursing stone to be found in the country, dated to circa 800, has been discovered on Canna.
 * May 22 - The Bedale Hoard, a hoard of forty-eight silver and gold items dating from the late 9th to early 10th century AD is discovered in a field near Bedale, North Yorkshire by metal detectorists.
 * June 25 - In the Channel Island of Jersey, the discovery of the Grouville Hoard of an estimated 30,000 – 50,000 Roman and Celtic coins by metal detectorists is announced.
 * July
 * Discovery of 15th century underwear at Lengberg Castle in Austria is confirmed.
 * The wreck of the polar expedition ship Terra Nova is discovered off Greenland by the Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor.
 * September - A beeswax filling is discovered in the cracked tooth of a Neolithic man in Slovenia.
 * October - In Jersey, the Trinity Hoard of Bronze Age tools and weapons is discovered.
 * November - 2,400-year-old golden treasure near the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari, Bulgaria.
 * December - Discovery near Canterbury, England, of a 1st-century Iron Age bronze helmet containing a bag of cremated human remains is announced.
 * Undated
 * Devunigutta Temple in India first reported.
 * Discovery of a rock inscription confirming the existence of Iry-Hor, the earliest ruler of Egypt known by name.
 * Cypriot pottery vessels excavated at Yehud in the land of Canaan (modern-day Israel) subsequently discovered to contain the earliest surviving evidence of opium for use as a narcotic.

Events

 * February - Completion of whole genome sequencing on Ötzi (d. c.3255 BCE) identifies his paternal DNA with Sardinia.
 * July - Mausoleums and a mosque in Timbuktu (Mali) are deliberately attacked by rebels, a war crime for which Ahmad al-Mahdi in 2016 pleads guilty before the International Criminal Court.
 * August - The Krak des Chevaliers is shelled by the Syrian Army.
 * November - Study from the Kathu Archaeological Complex in South Africa suggests that hominids, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, may have developed the technology of hafted stone-tipped spears about 500,000 years ago.

Deaths

 * July 19: Brian Dobson, British archaeologist notable for work on Hadrian's Wall and the Roman Army (b. 1931)
 * July 29: James Mellaart, British archaeologist. (b. 1925)