The year 1958 in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

involved some significant events.

Explorations

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

Tomb of the Eagles on

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

first explored by Ronald Simison. *

Anil de Silva Anil de Silva (1909–1996), known as Anil (Marcia) de Silva-Vigier, was a Sri Lankan journalist, political activist, author, art critic, and art historian. She worked for '' Marg'', a quarterly Indian journal on traditional and modern art, and was ...

plans an all-woman expedition to China (at this time closed to Western visitors) for herself,

Romila Thapar Romila Thapar (born 30 November 1931) is an Indian historian. Her principal area of study is ancient India, a field in which she is pre-eminent. Quotr: "The pre-eminent interpreter of ancient Indian history today. ... " Thapar is a Professor ...

and photographer Dominique Darbois to study the cave paintings in

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

and the

Maijishan Grottoes The Maijishan Grottoes (), formerly romanized as Maichishan, are a series of 194 caves cut in the side of the hill of Maijishan in Tianshui, Gansu Province, northwest China. This example of rock cut architecture contains over 7,200 Buddhist s ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

province.

Excavations

* Maya site of

Dzibilchaltun Dzibilchaltún ( Yucatec: Ts'íibil Cháaltun, ) is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, approximately north of state capital of Mérida. Location In the view of modern researchers, the ancient builders of Dzibilcha ...

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...

project under E. Wyllys Andrews IV. * Maya site of Altar de Sacrificios, Peabody Museum project under

A. Ledyard Smith A. Ledyard Smith (full name Augustus Ledyard Smith) (1901–1985) was an American archaeologist who worked on various projects in the Maya region on behalf of the Carnegie Institution, including Uaxactun. From 1958 to 1963 he led investigations ...

and Gordon Willey (continues to 1963). * Excavation project at Sardis by

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

begins. * Excavation at

Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwi and the town of Masvingo. It is thought to have been the capital of a great kingdom during the country's Late Iron Age about which little is known. Con ...

under

Roger Summers Roger Summers (1907-2003) was a Zimbabwean archaeologist, who worked for the National Museums and Monuments Commission from 1947 - 1970 and was described as "a major influence in the formative years of Zimbabwean, then. Rhodesian, archaeology". He ...

. * Excavations at Adlun in Southern Lebanon under Dorothy Garrod begin (continue to 1963). * Excavations at Vaishali in

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

begin (continue to 1962). * Excavations at Brunswick Town, North Carolina under

Stanley South Stanley A. South (February 2, 1928 - March 20, 2016) was an American archaeologist who was a major proponent of the processual archaeology movement. South's major contributions to archaeology deal in helping to legitimize it as a more scientific ...

begin (continue to 1968). * Excavations at the Roman fort of Petuaria near Brough, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, begin (continue to 1962). * Excavations and re-erection of

trilithon A trilithon or trilith is a structure consisting of two large vertical stones (posts) supporting a third stone set horizontally across the top (lintel). It is commonly used in the context of megalithic monuments. The most famous trilithons ar ...

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

in England.

Finds

* February 7: Discovery of " Deep Skull" in

Niah Caves Niah National Park, located within Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, is the site of the Niah Caves limestone cave and archeological site. History Alfred Russel Wallace lived for 8 months at Simunjan District with a mining engineer, Robert Co ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

Barbara Barbara may refer to: People * Barbara (given name) * Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter * Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer * Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously as ...

and

Tom Harrisson Major (United Kingdom), Major Tom Harnett Harrisson, DSO OBE (26 September 1911 – 16 January 1976) was a British polymath. In the course of his life he was an ornithologist, explorer, journalist, broadcaster, soldier, guerrilla, ethnologist, mu ...

, at around 40,000 years BP the oldest known evidence of ''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

'' in

southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. * April 2: Accidental discovery of the

Caernarfon Mithraeum The Caernarfon Mithraeum is a Mithraic temple or Mithraeum. It was located 137 meters north-east of the Roman castram of Segontium on the outskirts of modern Caernarfon in Gwynedd, Wales. The remains were discovered by accident on 2 April ...

in Wales. * July 4:

St Ninian's Isle Treasure The St Ninian's Isle Treasure, found on St Ninian's Isle, Scotland in 1958 is the best example of surviving silver metalwork from the Early Medieval period in Scotland. The 28-piece hoard includes various silver metalwork items, including twel ...

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

by Douglas Coutts. * August 18: Accidental discovery of Brymbo Man (c.2000 BCE) in Wales. * Workshop of

Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

. *

Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük (; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a tell of a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from appr ...

. * Bajo de la Campana Phoenician shipwreck site on the Mediterranean coast of Spain first identified by divers.

Publications

* M. W. Beresford and J. K. S. St Joseph - ''Medieval England : an aerial survey''. *

John Chadwick John Chadwick, (21 May 1920 – 24 November 1998) was an English linguist and classical scholar who was most notable for the decipherment, with Michael Ventris, of Linear B. Early life, education and wartime service John Chadwick was born at ...

- ''The Decipherment of

Linear B Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...

''. * Gordon R. Willey and Philip Phillips - ''Method and Theory in American Archaeology''.

Events

* December 12–14:
Problems relating to the Iron Age in Southern Britain
conference held in Oxford, organised by the

Council for British Archaeology The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) is an educational charity established in 1944 in the UK. It works to involve people in archaeology and to promote the appreciation and care of the historic environment for the benefit of present and futu ...

Births

* May 18: David Mattingly,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

world

Deaths

* August 17:

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...

, English Director-General of the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...

(born

1876 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. * February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs i ...

)

References

{{Reflist

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

Archaeology by year