1955 in archaeology

The year 1955 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

• Thor Heyerdahl organizes the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island (continues to 1956).
• Start of extensive discoveries at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery on Loveden Hill in Lincolnshire, England.^[1]

Excavations

• September - Gustav Riek begins systematic excavations at Brillenhöhle (continues to 1963).
• A. C. O'Dell begins excavations on St Ninian's Isle (continues to 1958).
• Alexander Sahinian begins excavations at Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia (continues to 1956).
• A. Ledyard Smith makes the first archaeological investigation of the Mayan site of Chutixtiox in Guatemala.
• Archaeological Survey of India begins excavations at Nagda chalcolithic site (continues to 1957).
• A Hebrew University team led by Yigal Yadin begins excavations at Tel Hazor (continues to 1958).
• Excavation of Qujialing culture type site in China begins (continues to 1957).

Publications

• Cyril Fox - Offa's Dyke: a Field Survey of the Western Frontier Works of Mercia in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries AD.^[2]
• Ivan D. Margary - Roman Roads in Britain, vol. 1.
• I. A. Richmond - Roman Britain (Penguin Books).

Finds

• May 19 - Greenock Coin Hoard in Scotland.
• Pesse canoe, the oldest known boat, in the Netherlands.
• First remains of Paranthropus boisei — teeth of Olduvai Hominin (OH) 3 — unearthed in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.^[3]

Awards

Miscellaneous

• October - The term "Industrial archaeology" is popularised.^[4]

Births

• January 1 - Mary Beard, English Classicist.
• April 20 - Svante Pääbo, Swedish paleogeneticist.
• September 30 - Martin Millett, English Classical archaeologist.

Deaths

• January 1 - Arthur C. Parker, part-Seneca American archaeologist and ethnographer of Native Americans in the United States (b. 1881).
• March 31 - Thomas Dunbabin, Australian-born Classical archaeologist and Greek Resistance leader (b. 1911).
• August 17 - Edward Thurlow Leeds, English archaeologist of the Anglo-Saxons (b. 1877).^[5]
• October 29 - Alexander Keiller, British archaeologist and benefactor (b. 1889).^[6]
• December 15 - V. E. Nash-Williams, Welsh archaeologist (b. 1897).^[7]
• December 25 - Thomas J. Preston, Jr., American archaeologist (b. 1862).