The year 1954 in
archaeology involved some significant events.
Explorations
*
Excavations
*
Mixco Viejo,
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
Musée d'Homme project under the direction of
Henri Lehmann starts (continues through 1967).
*
Neolithic-era site of
Ashkelon discovered and excavated by French archaeologist Jean Perrot.
* Excavations at
Beycesultan by
Seton Lloyd of the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara begin (continue to 1959).
* Excavations at
Filitosa
Filitosa is a megalithic site in southern Corsica, France. The period of occupation spans from the end of the Neolithic era and the beginning of the Bronze Age, until around the Roman times in Corsica.
Location
The site lies on road D57, ...
,
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
, begin.
* Excavations at
Nagarjunakonda by the
Archaeological Survey of India begin (continue to 1960).
* Excavations at
Nevasa,
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
, begin (continue to 1956).
* Excavations of the
London Mithraeum conducted under the direction of
W. F. Grimes
William Francis Grimes (known as Peter; 31 October 1905 – 25 December 1988) was a Welsh archaeologist. He devoted his career to the archaeology of London and the prehistory of Wales. He was appointed a CBE in 1955.
Early life
Grimes was bo ...
.
* Systematic excavations at
Niah Caves begin under the direction of the
Sarawak Museum.
Finds
* September 18 - Marble head of
Mithras from
London Mithraeum unearthed in
Walbrook Square by
W. F. Grimes
William Francis Grimes (known as Peter; 31 October 1905 – 25 December 1988) was a Welsh archaeologist. He devoted his career to the archaeology of London and the prehistory of Wales. He was appointed a CBE in 1955.
Early life
Grimes was bo ...
's excavation.
*
Panlongcheng
Panlongcheng () or Panlong City is an archaeological site associated with the Erligang culture () during the Shang dynasty period (). The site is located just north of the Yangtze river, on the bank of the Panlong lake, and is surrounded by the Fus ...
Erligang culture site in China discovered.
*
Khufu ship discovered in
Giza pyramid complex
The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Men ...
by
Kamal el-Mallakh
Kamal el-Mallakh ( ar, كمال الملاخ) was a famous Egyptian archaeologist who was among the Egyptian antiquities inspectors who discovered the ''King Khufu Solar ship'' in 1954.
Life
El Mallakh was born to a Coptic Christian Orthodox ...
.
*
Cape Gelidonya shipwreck discovered.
Miscellaneous
* Sir
Mortimer Wheeler is named Television Personality of the Year in the U.K. due to his contributions to ''
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?
''Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?'' was a popular television game show which ran from 1952 to 1959. In the show, a panel of archeologists, art historians, and natural history experts were asked to identify interesting objects or artifacts from m ...
''
Publications
*
Maurice Beresford - ''The Lost Villages of England''.
* R. Allen Brown - ''English Medieval Castles''.
*
Grahame Clark - ''Excavations at Star Carr, an early Mesolithic site at Seamer near Scarborough, Yorkshire''.
*
V. E. Nash-Williams - ''The Roman Frontier in Wales''.
*
Stuart Piggott - ''The Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles: a study of the stone-using agricultural communities of Britain in the second millennium B.C.''
Births
* July 1 -
William Rathje
William Laurens Rathje (July 1, 1945 – May 24, 2012) was an American archaeologist. He was professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Arizona, with a joint appointment with the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, and was c ...
,
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
archaeologist and
garbologist (d.
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
)
*
Barbara Tsakirgis
Barbara Tsakirgis (1954 – January 16, 2019) was an American classical archaeologist with specialization in Greek and Roman archaeology, particularly of ancient Greek houses and households. She worked in the archaeological excavation sites in Si ...
, American classical archaeologist (d.
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
)
Deaths
* March 6 - Sir
John Myres
Sir John Linton Myres Kt OBE FBA FRAI (3 July 1869 in Preston – 6 March 1954 in Oxford) was a British archaeologist and academic, who conducted excavations in Cyprus in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Life
He was the son of t ...
,
English archaeologist of Cyprus (b.
1869
Events
January–March
* January 3 – Abdur Rahman Khan is defeated at Tinah Khan, and exiled from Afghanistan.
* January 5 – Scotland's oldest professional football team, Kilmarnock F.C., is founded.
* January 20 – E ...
)
* April 10 -
Ludwig Curtius
Ludwig Curtius (December 13, 1874 – April 10, 1954) was a German archaeologist born in Augsburg. He is remembered for his investigations involving the development of ancient Greek and Roman art.
He studied classical archaeology in Munich unde ...
,
German Classical archaeologist
Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about i ...
(b.
1874
Events
January–March
* January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx.
* January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time.
* January 3 – Third Carlist War &ndas ...
)
* July 16 -
Henri Frankfort,
Dutch-born
Egyptologist (b.
1897
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.
* January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puniti ...
)
* October 5 -
Alfred Tozzer, American
Mesoamerican archaeologist (b.
1877
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed ''Empress of India'' by the ''Royal Titles Act 1876'', introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom .
* January 8 – Great Sio ...
)
References
{{reflist
Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology by year