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Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1886.
Explorations
Excavations
- October 4 – Augustus Pitt Rivers begins excavation of the Romano-British settlement site on Rotherley Down.
Finds
- September – Beothuk child burial on an island of Newfoundland.
- The well-preserved skeletons of a Neanderthal man and woman with Mousterian stone implements are found in the Betche aux Roches cavern at Spy, Belgium, by Maximin Lohest and Marcel de Puydt.
- Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan recorded by Thomas Holdich.
- Armed Aphrodite statue in Epidaurus, Greece.
Events
- June 10 – Te Wairoa is buried by a volcanic eruption.
Births
- October 28 – O. G. S. Crawford, British archaeologist (d. 1957).
Deaths
- January 9 – James Fergusson, Scottish-born antiquarian, architect and merchant (b. 1808).
- June 5 – Llewellynn Jewitt, British archaeologist, illustrator and natural scientist (b. 1816).