1950 in archaeology

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1950.

1780s . 1790s in archaeology . 1800

Other events: 1790s . Archaeology timeline

Explorations

• Spring: Explorations at Timna in Yemen by Wendell Phillips of the American Foundation for the Study of Man (continues in 1951).

Excavations

• Excavations at Stonehenge in the south of England by R. J. C. Atkinson, Stuart Piggott and J. F. S. Stone.
• Excavations at Wharram Percy in the north of England by Maurice Beresford begin.
• Excavations at Beitin, West Bank.
• Excavations at Gordion in Turkey by the University of Pennsylvania Museum under Rodney S. Young begin.

Finds

• March 1 - A hoard of Roman coins is discovered at Hordley Grange, Shropshire, England.
• May 8 - A bog body known as "Tollund Man" is discovered in Denmark.^[1]
• The Upchurch Hoard is discovered in Upchurch, Kent, England.
• A third premolar is discovered in materials sent back to Sweden by Otto Zdansky from his excavations of the Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian, China in 1921 and 1923.
• Balfarg, a prehistoric site in Fife, Scotland, is discovered through air photography.^[2]
• Three Roman mosaic pavements are found at Harpham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
• Stabiae (buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius) is rediscovered.
• The Garima Gospels at Abba Garima Monastery in Ethiopia first become known to Western scholars.

Events

• January 1 - Commencement date (epoch) of the Before Present time scale.^[3]

Publications

• T. C. Lethbridge - Herdsmen and Hermits: Celtic Seafarers in the Northern Seas.^[4]
• V. E. Nash-Williams - The Early Christian Monuments of Wales.^[5]

Births

• January 25 - Phil Harding, English field archaeologist
• Wafaa El Saddik, Egyptian Egyptologist

Deaths

• January 27 - Herbert Eustis Winlock, American Egyptologist who worked for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (b. 1884)^[6]