1760s in archaeology

The decade of the 1760s in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

• 1764: First systematic mapping of the Antonine Wall by William Roy.

Excavations

• Formal excavations continue at Pompeii.
• 1757: Rev. Bryan Faussett begins excavations at Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Kent, England.

Finds

• 1761-1767: Carsten Niebuhr transcribes the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis.
• 1765: Nathaniel Davison discovers a stress-relieving chamber (Davison's chamber) above the Kings chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Publications

• 1762: James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett's Antiquities of Athens.^[1]
• 1764:
  • Robert Adam's Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia.
  • Johann Joachim Winckelmann's Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History of Ancient Art").

Other events

• 1764: French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélemy deciphers the Phoenician language using the inscriptions on the Cippi of Melqart from Malta.

Births

• 1760:
  • January 6 - Richard Polwhele, Cornish antiquarian (d. 1838)
  • June 8 - Karl Böttiger, German archaeologist (d. 1835)
• 1763:
  • November 19 - Karl Ludwig Fernow, German art critic and archaeologist (d. 1808)^[2]
  • Samuel Lysons, English antiquarian (d. 1819)^[3]
• 1766: March 16? - Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer (d. 1875)
• 1769:
  • March 23 - William Smith, English geologist (d. 1839)^[4]
  • August 23 - Georges Cuvier, French naturalist, zoologist and paleontologist (d. 1832)^[5]
  • September 14 - Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian explorer and writer (d. 1859)

Deaths

• 1765:
  • March 3 - William Stukeley, English antiquarian (b. 1689)
  • September 5 - Anne Claude de Caylus, French archaeologist (d. 1765)^[6]
• 1767: June 17 - Jean-Baptiste Greppo, French canon and archaeologist (b. 1712)
• 1768: June 8 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German art critic and archaeologist (b. 1717)^[7]