1939 in archaeology

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Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1939 .

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Excavations

Publications

Finds

Miscellaneous

Births

Deaths

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo</span> Archaeological site in Suffolk, England

Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts was discovered. The site is important in establishing the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia as well as illuminating the Anglo-Saxons during a period which lacks historical documentation.

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1937.

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1905.

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benty Grange helmet</span> 7th-century boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet

The Benty Grange helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the 7th century AD. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a tumulus at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The grave had probably been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but still contained other high-status objects suggestive of a richly furnished burial, such as the fragmentary remains of a hanging bowl. The helmet is displayed at Sheffield's Weston Park Museum, which purchased it from Bateman's estate in 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery</span> Anglo-Saxon burial site

The Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery is a place of burial dated to the 6th century AD located on Snape Common, near to the town of Aldeburgh in Suffolk, Eastern England. Dating to the early part of the Anglo-Saxon Era of English history, it contains a variety of different forms of burial, with inhumation and cremation burials being found in roughly equal proportions. The site is also known for the inclusion of a high status ship burial. A number of these burials were included within burial mounds.

Basil John Wait Brown was an English archaeologist and astronomer. Self-taught, he discovered and excavated a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939, which has come to be called "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time". Although Brown was described as an amateur archaeologist, his career as a paid excavation employee for a provincial museum spanned more than thirty years.

<i>The Dig</i> (novel) 2007 historical novel by John Preston

The Dig is a historical novel by John Preston, published in May 2007, set in the context of the 1939 Anglo-Saxon ship burial excavation at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England. The dust jacket describes it as "a brilliantly realized account of the most famous archaeological dig in Britain in modern times".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupert Bruce-Mitford</span> British archaeologist and scholar (1914–1994)

Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford was a British archaeologist and scholar. He spent the majority of his career at the British Museum, primarily as the Keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, and was particularly known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Considered the "spiritus rector" of such research, he oversaw the production of the monumental three-volume work The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial, termed by the president of the Society of Antiquaries as "one of the great books of the century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo helmet</span> Decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet

The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. It was buried around the years c. 620–625 CE and is widely associated with an Anglo-Saxon leader, King Rædwald of East Anglia; its elaborate decoration may have given it a secondary function akin to a crown. The helmet was both a functional piece of armour that would have offered considerable protection if ever used in warfare, and a decorative, prestigious piece of extravagant metalwork. An iconic object from an archaeological find hailed as the "British Tutankhamen", it has become a symbol of the Early Middle Ages, "of Archaeology in general", and of England.

Martin Biddle, is a British archaeologist and academic. He is an emeritus fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. His work was important in the development of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Ashbee</span>

Paul Ashbee was a leading British archaeologist, noted for his many excavations of barrows, or burial mounds, and for co-directing the Sutton Hoo digs from 1964 to 1972. He was also president of the Just William Society. He died of cancer on 19 August 2009, aged 91.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo purse-lid</span>

The Sutton Hoo purse-lid is one of the major objects excavated from the Anglo-Saxon royal burial-ground at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. The site contains a collection of burial mounds, of which much the most significant is the undisturbed ship burial in Mound 1 containing very rich grave goods including the purse-lid. The person buried in Mound 1 is usually thought to have been Rædwald, King of East Anglia, who died around 624. The purse-lid is considered to be "one of the most remarkable creations of the early medieval period." About seven and a half inches long, it is decorated with beautiful ornament in gold and garnet cloisonné enamel, and was undoubtedly a symbol of great wealth and status. In 2017 the purse-lid was on display at the British Museum.

The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England is the study of the archaeology of England from the 5th century AD to the 11th century, when it was ruled by Germanic tribes known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons.

Edward Martyn Jope was an English archaeologist and chemist. He worked temporarily during the Second World War as a biochemist. Following the war, he returned to working in archaeology, first as a medievalist and later as a prehistorian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Williams (conservator)</span> British conservator and expert on the restoration of ceramics and glass (1944–1992)

Nigel Reuben Rook Williams was an English conservator and expert on the restoration of ceramics and glass. From 1961 until his death he worked at the British Museum, where he became the Chief Conservator of Ceramics and Glass in 1983. There his work included the successful restorations of the Sutton Hoo helmet and the Portland Vase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter van Geersdaele</span> English conservator (1933–2018)

Peter Charles van Geersdaele was an English conservator best known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Among other work he oversaw the creation of a plaster cast of the ship impression, from which a fibreglass replica of the ship was formed. He later helped mould an impression of the Graveney boat, in addition to other excavation and restoration work.

This page lists major events of 2020 in archaeology.

Angela Care Evans,, is an archaeologist and former Curator in the department of Britain, Europe, and Prehistory at the British Museum. She has published extensively on the Sutton Hoo Mound 1 artefacts and early medieval metalwork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tranmer House</span> Country house in Suffolk, United Kingdom

Tranmer House is a country house in Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, dating from 1910. The house is located on the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon burial site, and in 1938 was the home of Edith Pretty. In June 1938, Pretty employed Basil Brown to undertake the excavation of a range of burial mounds on the estate, leading to Brown's discovery in May 1939 of a ship burial, "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time". The house is now owned by the National Trust.

References

  1. Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S. (1940). "The Excavations at Seacourt, Berks., 1939: an interim report" (PDF). Oxoniensia. Oxford Architectural and Historical Society. V: 31–42.
  2. Jope, E. M.; Threlfall, R. I. (1958). "Excavation of a medieval settlement at Bere, North Tawton, Devon". Medieval Archaeology . 2: 112–140. doi:10.1080/00766097.1958.11735476.
  3. Hamilakis, Yannis (2007). The Nation and Its Ruins: Antiquity, Archaeology, and National Imagination in Greece. Oxford University Press. p. 169. ISBN   978-0-19-923038-9.
  4. "The Lion Man: an Ice Age masterpiece". The British Museum Blog. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  5. "Kulubá Maya ruins are being restored to their ancient splendor". El Universal . Mexico City. 2019-06-15. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  6. Aston, Mick (5 October 2001). "Peter Reynolds". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  7. "Howard Carter - British archaeologist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 31 May 2017.