1999 in archaeology
Encyclopedia
The year 1999 in archaeology
involved some significant events.
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...
involved some significant events.
Excavations
- Excavations resume at QatnaQatnaQatna is an archaeological site in the Wadi il-Aswad, a tributary of the Orontes, 18 km northeast of Homs, Syria. It consists in a tell occupying 1 km², which makes it one of the largest Bronze Age towns in western Syria...
, in SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, by the Deutsche Orient-GesellschaftDeutsche Orient-GesellschaftThe Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft is a Eingetragener Verein - a registered voluntary association - based at Berlin in Germany....
. - Wide-scope vertical and horizontal excavation of world's oldest wet-rice (rice paddy) agricultural feature, c. 800 BC, at Okhyeon site, UlsanUlsanUlsan , officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh largest metropolis with a population of over 1.1 million. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring Busan to the south and facing Gyeongju to the north and the Sea of Japan to the east.Ulsan is the...
, Korea.
Finds
- Shipwreck of the RMSRMS-Science and technology:* Root mean square, a concept encapsulating the "average", in some sense, of a quantity. Frequently encountered in statistics, the physical sciences and electronics...
CarpathiaRMS CarpathiaRMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...
is located. - 105 mummies are discovered in the first 4 tombs to be opened in the Valley of the Golden MummiesValley of the Golden MummiesThe Valley of the Golden Mummies is a huge burial site at Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, discovered by Dr. Zahi Hawass in 1996. Hawass and his Egyptian team found around 250 mummies over several seasons; however, the site has more than this number - according to the excavator even...
. - A frozen and mummifiedMummyA mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
body, later named Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchiKwäday Dän Ts’ìnchiKwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi , or Canadian Ice Man, is a naturally mummified body found in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in British Columbia, Canada, by a group of hunters in 1999. Radiocarbon dating of artifacts found with the body placed the age of the body at between 300 and 550 years old...
("Long Ago Person Found"), is found in a Canadian glacierGlacierA glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
. - The Theban Desert Road SurveyTheban Desert Road SurveyThe Theban Desert Road Survey is an archaeological research project operated in conjunction with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture's Supreme Council for Antiquities that is being conducted in the Libyan Desert in Egypt west of the Nile River that focuses on the ancient connections between Thebes and...
discovers inscriptions at Wadi el-Hol in the Proto-Sinaitic alphabetProto-Sinaitic alphabetProto-Sinaitic is a Middle Bronze Age script attested in a very small collection of inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula. Due to the extreme scarcity of Proto-Sinaitic signs, very little is known with certainty about the nature of the script...
.
Publications
- Penelope M. Allison (ed.) - The Archaeology of Household Activities.
- John Carman and Anthony Harding (ed.) - Ancient Warfare: archaeological perspectives.
- Chris Gosden and Jon Hather (ed.) - The Prehistory of Food: appetites for change.
- Matthew Johnson - Archaeological Theory: an introduction.
- Thomas Stöllner - Der prähistorische Salzbergbau am Dürrnberg bei Hallein: Forschungsgeschichte, Forschungsstand, Forschungsanliegen, Bd 1.
- July-August issue of ArchaeologyArchaeology (magazine)Archaeology is a bimonthly mainstream magazine about archaeology, published by the Archaeological Institute of America. Its focus is both for archaeologists and non-specialists alike. The magazine was launched in 1948, and is published six times a year....
asks: "Is Schliemann Mask a Fake?". Some scholars, noting that the "Mask of AgamemnonMask of AgamemnonThe Mask of Agamemnon is an artifact discovered at Mycenae in 1876 by Heinrich Schliemann. The artifact is a funeral mask hewn in gold, and was found over the face of a body located in a burial shaft...
" is significantly different from the others found at the site, contend that SchliemannHeinrich SchliemannHeinrich Schliemann was a German businessman and amateur archaeologist, and an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer. Schliemann was an archaeological excavator of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns...
had some of the features added to make the mask appear more heroic to viewers of his day.
Deaths
- March 31 - Yuri Knorozov, epigrapher of Maya hieroglyphs
- July 16 - Barri JonesBarri JonesGeraint Dyfed Barri Jones was a classical scholar and archaeologist.Born in St Helens to Welsh-speaking parents, he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from 1947–1954, and won a Welsh Foundation Scholarship to read classics at Jesus College, Oxford.-Fieldwork and...
- Arvid AndrénArvid AndrénArvid Andrén was a Swedish classical art historian who focused his work on decorative architectural terracotta sculpture from ancient Italy.Andrén served as director of the Swedish Institute at Rome from 1948 to 1952 and 1964-1966.-References:...