1926 in archaeology
Encyclopedia
The year 1926 saw a number of significant events in the field of archaeology
:
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
:
Explorations
- February: Thomas GannThomas GannThomas William Francis Gann was a medical doctor by profession, but is best remembered for his work as an amateur archaeologist exploring ruins of the Maya civilization....
visits the MayaMaya civilizationThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
n ruin of CobaCobaCoba is a large ruined city of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is located about 90 km east of the Maya site of Chichen Itza, about 40 km west of the Caribbean Sea, and 44 km northwest of the site of Tulum, with which it is...
, and publishes the first first-hand description of the site later in the year. - Enrique Juan Palacios makes detailed description of ChinkulticChinkulticChinkultic, sometimes Chincultic, is a moderate-size archeological ruin in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, some 56 km from the small modern city of Comitán. This Pre-Columbian city belongs to the ancient Maya civilization. The city flourished in the Maya Classic Era, from about the 3rd through...
. - Matthew StirlingMatthew StirlingMatthew Williams Stirling was an American ethnologist, archaeologist and later an administrator at several scientific institutions in the field...
explores New GuineaNew GuineaNew Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
(through 1929). - Leo FrobeniusLeo FrobeniusLeo Viktor Frobenius was an ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography.-Life:He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy...
makes the first detailed survey of the central Eastern Desert of EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. - First survey at Tel Hazor made by John GarstangJohn GarstangJohn Garstang was a British archaeologist of the ancient Near East, especially Anatolia and the southern Levant....
. - LouisLouis LeakeyLouis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a British archaeologist and naturalist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa. He also played a major role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there...
and Mary LeakeyMary LeakeyMary Leakey was a British archaeologist and anthropologist, who discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai. For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge,...
discover the neolithicNeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
site at Hyrax HillHyrax HillHyrax Hill is a prehistoric site near Nakuru in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. It is considered one of the country's most important neolithic excavation sites. Hyrax Hill dates from 1500 B.C. and was discovered by Louis and Mary Leakey in 1926....
, KenyaKenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
.
Excavations
- British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
-sponsored excavations at LubaantunLubaantunLubaantun is a pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in southern Belize, Central America...
under T. A. Joyce. - UaxactunUaxactunUaxactun is an ancient ruin of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some north of the major center of Tikal...
project by Carnegie Institution led by Oliver Ricketson begins. - Alexander KeillerAlexander KeillerAlexander Keiller was an archaeologist and businessman who worked on the site at Avebury in Wiltshire. He used his wealth to acquire a total of of land for preservation, conducted excavations, re-erected stones on the site, and created a museum to interpret the site. He founded the Morven...
and Harold St George Gray excavate Windmill Hill, Avebury (continues to 1929). - Pierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
joins the ongoing excavations of the Peking ManPeking ManPeking Man , Homo erectus pekinensis, is an example of Homo erectus. A group of fossil specimens was discovered in 1923-27 during excavations at Zhoukoudian near Beijing , China...
Site at ZhoukoudianZhoukoudianZhoukoudian or Choukoutien is a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris...
, ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, as an advisor.
Publications
- Nils Åberg - The Anglo-Saxons in England during the early centuries after the invasion.
- V. Gordon Childe - The Aryans: a Study of Indo-European Origins.
Finds
- October: Johan Gunnar AnderssonJohan Gunnar AnderssonJohan Gunnar Andersson , Swedish archaeologist, paleontologist and geologist, closely associated with the beginnings of Chinese archaeology in the 1920s...
announces the discovery of two human molars amongst the material excavated from the Peking ManPeking ManPeking Man , Homo erectus pekinensis, is an example of Homo erectus. A group of fossil specimens was discovered in 1923-27 during excavations at Zhoukoudian near Beijing , China...
site in ZhoukoudianZhoukoudianZhoukoudian or Choukoutien is a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris...
, ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
by his assistant Otto ZdanskyOtto ZdanskyOtto A. Zdansky was an Austrian paleontologist.He is best known for his work in China, where he, as an assistant to Johan Gunnar Andersson, discovered a fossil tooth of the Peking Man in 1921 at the Dragon Bone Hill, although he did not disclose it until 1926 when he published it in Nature after...
in 1921 and 19231923 in archaeologyThe year 1923 in archaeology involved some significant events.-Explorations:*Expedition under Neil Merton Judd to collect dendrochronological specimens in order to date habitation of Chaco Canyon- Excavations:... - MayaMaya civilizationThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
n settlement of El MiradorEl MiradorEl Mirador is a large pre-Columbian Mayan settlement, located in the north of the modern department of El Petén, Guatemala.-Discovery:El Mirador was first discovered in 1926, and was photographed from the air in 1930, but the remote site deep in the jungle had little more attention paid to it until...
first discovered - Crofton Roman VillaCrofton Roman VillaCrofton Roman Villa in Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley, is a Roman villa which was inhabited between approximately 140 and 400 AD. It was the centre of a farming estate of about 500 acres , with farm buildings nearby, surrounded by fields, meadows and woods...
discovered by bricklayers in Orpington, England
Miscellaneous
- June - Baghdad Archaeological MuseumNational Museum of IraqThe National Museum of Iraq is a museum located in Baghdad, Iraq. It contains precious relics from Mesopotamian civilization.-Foundation:...
opens. - Sir Ellis MinnsEllis MinnsSir Ellis Hovell Minns was a British academic and archaeologist whose studies focused on Eastern Europe.Educated at Charterhouse, he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge studying the Classical tripos including Slavonic and Russian. He lived briefly in Paris before moving to St Petersburg in 1898 to...
elected to the Disney Professorship of ArchaeologyDisney Professorship of ArchaeologyThe Disney Professorship of Archaeology, also known as the Disney Chair, is a professorship in the University of Cambridge. It was endowed with a donation of £1,000 by John Disney in 1851, followed by a further £3,500 in a bequest at his death...
at the University of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.