2013 in archaeology

The year 2013 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Excavations

• May
  • Excavations conducted at the Sobibór Museum in Poland unearth an escape tunnel made by victims of the Holocaust in the Sobibor extermination camp. ^[1]
  • Excavation of Portuguese carrack Esmeralda , wrecked off the coast of Oman in 1503, by David Mearns begins. ^[2]
• Excavation of abandoned Bradford Park Avenue football stadium in England begins. ^[3]
• Excavation and recording of the large-scale military terrain model of the Battle of Messines (1917) on Cannock Chase in England is conducted. ^[4]
• Excavations of the Roman site at Bloomberg London, beginning in 2010 and including discovery of the Bloomberg tablets, end.
• Excavations conducted in Kaarina found ruins of oldest church building in Finland. ^[5]
• Salah Hussein A. Al-Houdalieh of Al-Quds University led a five-week excavation at the Byzantine Church of Khirbet et-Tireh in Palestine. ^[6]

Exploration

• September - Service tunnel network beneath Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, Italy.

Finds

• February 4 - DNA evidence confirms that bones found in 2012 at the site of Greyfriars, Leicester, are those of King Richard III of England (k. 1485). ^[7]
• April - Burial of 5 Celtic warriors at Buchères in France discovered. ^[8]
• May - Happisburgh footprints, the oldest hominin footprints outside of Africa, dating to more than 800,000 years ago, are discovered on the beach at Happisburgh, Norfolk, England. ^[9]
• June - Chactún, a Mayan ruin, is discovered in Campeche, Mexico. ^[10]
• July
  • A substantial and well-preserved section of the Willington Waggonway, an 18th century wooden railway on Tyneside in England, is found. ^[11]
  • The unexpected discovery of Pacific walrus bones among 19th-century human burials in St Pancras Old Church graveyard in London (in advance of High Speed 1 railway works) is reported. ^[12]
• August - A 500-kg bronze statue of Apollo is found by Palestinian fisherman Joudat Ghrab. ^[13] Dated between the 5th and the 1st century BC, the statue is seized by Hamas officials after briefly appearing on eBay. ^[13]
• September - Wreck of Lake freighter SS Scotiadoc (sank 1953) located in Lake Superior. ^[14]
• November - The Seaton Down Hoard of 22,888 Roman coins is found by metal detectorists in Devon, England. ^[15]
• A grave and first remains of what will be identified as the oldest human burial in Africa – a 3-year old named Mtoto by archaeologists – from 78,000 years BP are located in Kenya. ^[16]
• Wreck found in Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua, subsequently thought to be French ship Beaumont (1762). ^[17]
• A draft of the Olive Branch Petition found in the attic of the Morris-Jumel Mansion among papers that had been donated in the early 20th century. ^{[18] [19]}

Events

• A wreck found off the coast of modern-day Sweden is identified as the Danish flagship Gribshunden (sank 1495). ^[20]
• Experimental archaeology: Construction of Campus Galli, a replica Carolingian monastic community in Meßkirch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, according to period techniques, begins.

Deaths

• 6 June: Malcolm Todd, English archaeologist of the Roman Empire (b. 1939)
• 24 June: Mick Aston, English archaeologist notable for his work with Time Team (b. 1946) ^[21]

See also

• List of years in archaeology

References

1. "Próba ucieczki z obozu zagłady. Odkryli nieznany tunel w Sobiborze". Wiadomości lokalne. Gazeta Wyborcza. 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
2. Mearns, David L.; Parham, David; Frohlich, Bruno (2016-03-14). "A Portuguese East Indiaman from the 1502–1503 Fleet of Vasco da Gama off Al Hallaniyah Island, Oman: an interim report" (PDF). International Journal of Nautical Archaeology . 46 (2): 331–350. Bibcode:2016IJNAr..45..331M. doi: 10.1111/1095-9270.12175 .
3. "Breaking Ground: Art, Archaeology and Mythology". Manchester: National Football Museum. 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-16.
4. Brown, M.; Nichol, K. (2014). Messines Model, Cannock Chase, Staffordhire: Excavation and Survey 2013. No Man's Land for Staffordshire County Council.
5. Leppänen, Mari (2013-09-04). "Suomen vanhin kirkko löytyi". Yle. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
6. Al-Houdalieh, Salah H. (2014). "The Byzantine Church of Khirbet et-Tireh". Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies. 2 (3): 196. doi:10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.2.3.0188. JSTOR   10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.2.3.0188 .
7. "Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king". BBC News . 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2013-02-04.
8. "Celtic Burials Discovered in France". Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
9. Ghosh, Pallab (2014-02-07). "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk". BBC News. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
10. Gannon, Megan (2013-06-20). "Ruins of Maya City Discovered in Remote Jungle". Live Science . Retrieved 2018-02-23.
11. Bell, Dominique (31 January 2017). "The Willington Waggonway Research Programme". Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums . Retrieved 2018-07-15.
12. Foch, Alex (2013-08-13). "Why Was A Walrus Found Buried Next To 8 Human Bodies In King's Cross?". Londonist. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
13. "'Priceless' bronze statue of Greek god Apollo found in Gaza Strip". The Guardian . London. Archived from the original on 2014-02-11. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
14. "'Deepest' Great Lakes shipwreck found near Thunder Bay: Scotiadoc found largely intact near Trowbridge Island". CBC News. 2013-10-07. Archived from the original on 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
15. Press Association (2014-09-26). "Roman coin hoard, one of the largest found in UK, unearthed by builder". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
16. Martinón-Torres, María; et al. (2021). "Earliest known human burial in Africa". Nature . 593 (7857): 95–100. Bibcode:2021Natur.593...95M. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03457-8. hdl: 10072/413039 . PMID   33953416. S2CID   233871256.
17. Handy, Gemma (2021-07-25). "Excitement over wooden shipwreck found in Antigua's seabed". BBC News. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
18. Magazine, Smithsonian; Barry, Rebecca Rego. "An Intern Saved a Museum by Finding This Revolutionary War Treasure in the Attic". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
19. Barron, James (2014-01-01). "Letter Tied to Fight for Independence Is Found in Museum's Attic". The New York Times.
20. Warming, Rolf (2015-07-01). "Gribshunden: Significance and Preliminary Investigations". Society for Combat Archaeology. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
21. Dyer, Christopher (25 June 2013). "Mick Aston obituary". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 12 March 2017.