1973 in archaeology

The year 1973 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Excavations

• Meadowcroft Rock Shelter under James M. Adovasio.
• Heavenly Horse Tomb (Cheonmachong), a mounded tomb of Silla (c. AD 300/400-668) royalty in Gyeongju, Korea.
• Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski and her colleagues has the opportunity to work on the previously undisturbed peristyle garden of the House of G. Polybius in Pompeii.
• Somerset Levels Project begins.

Finds

• Vindolanda tablets discovered by Robin Birley near Hadrian's Wall, England.^[1]
• Fossils of a human premolar and 40 mammalian species excavated at Locality 4 in Zhoukoudian, China.
• St Peter's Church, Dunwich, discovered submerged off the Suffolk coast of England by Stuart Bacon.
• A large Song dynasty trade ship of c.1277 CE is dredged up from the waters near the southern coast of China with 12 compartments in its hull. It confirms the descriptions of bulkheaded hull compartments for junks in Zhu Yu's Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119.

Events

• First Mesa Redonda de Palenque conference in Palenque starts very productive process leading to major improvements in understanding Maya hieroglyphics and the iconography of Maya civilization.
• Tucson Garbage Project initiated by William Rathje.^[2]
• July 18 - Protection of Wrecks Act passed in the United Kingdom.^[3] The first site designated under it is the Cattewater Wreck at Plymouth on September 5.

Publications

• Coles, John. Archaeology by Experiment. London: Hutchinson University Library. ISBN 0-09-116870-8.
• Hawkes, Christopher; Hawkes, Sonia (eds.). Greeks, Celts, and Romans: studies in venture and resistance. London: Dent. ISBN 0460078429.
• Renfrew, Colin. Before Civilisation: the Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe. London: Cape. ISBN 0-224-00790-4.
• Renfrew, Jane M. Palaeoethnobotany: the prehistoric food plants of the Near East and Europe. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-416-16510-9.

Births

Deaths

References