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The year 1996 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

  • Preliminary survey of Buckton Castle in the north west of England.
  • A Bronze Age site, al-Moghraqa, was discovered by Moain Sadeq in Gaza Governorate, Palestine.
  • December: the Byzantine Church of Jabalia in Palestine is discovered during repairs to the Salah al-Din Road.

Excavations

  • July – excavations at Blakhiya Byzantine cemetery in Palestine take place under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities of Gaza and the École Biblique.
  • Large-scale, wide-scope horizontal excavations begin at Daepyeong, a large Mumun Pottery Period settlement in Korea (continued until early 2000).
  • Excavations near Bogazköy by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft begin (continued until 1999).
  • Excavation of the Portuguese nau Nossa Senhora dos Mártires (1605–06) at the mouth of the Tagus begins (continued until 2001).
  • First excavation of medieval drain at Paisley Abbey in Scotland.

Publications

  • Matthew Johnson - An Archaeology of Capitalism (Blackwell).
  • Denise Schmandt-Besserat - How Writing Came About (University of Texas Press).
  • Rita P. Wright (ed.) - Gender and Archaeology (University of Pennsylvania Press).
  • First issue of e-journal Internet Archaeology.

Finds

  • July: Mass grave of victims of the Battle of Towton (1461) in England.
  • July 28: Kennewick Man in the United States.
  • August 4: Seaton Carew Wreck in England.
  • November 21: Pirate flagship Queen Anne's Revenge (run aground 1718) in North Carolina.
  • Herxheim archaeological site, a Neolithic Linear Pottery culture ritual center and mass grave at Herxheim in southwest Germany.
  • The Keltenfürst (Celtic prince) of Glauberg in Germany, a life-size sandstone statue of a warrior dating from the 5th century BCE.
  • Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription in Israel.
  • Lod Mosaic in Israel.
  • Croatian Apoxyomenos off the Croatian islet of Vele Orjule.
  • Hermes of Messene in Messene, Greece.
  • Ōfune Site, one of the Jōmon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaidō, Japan.
  • "Great Dover Street woman" from Roman Britain in London.
  • Polychrome wall paintings (dated to 1090) at church of St Mary the Virgin in the deserted village of Houghton on the Hill, Norfolk, England.

Events

  • Yale University Bonampak Documentation Project begins at Maya site of Bonampak.
  • November 2: Sendai City Tomizawa Site Museum opens in Japan.

Deaths

  • January 17- William Lamplough, British archaeologist (b. 1914).
  • March 18 - Jacquetta Hawkes, British archaeologist (b. 1910).
  • September 23 - Stuart Piggott, British archaeologist (b. 1910).
  • November 14 - Martyn Jope, British archaeologist and biochemist (b. 1915).
  • December 9 - Mary Leakey, British archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1913).

References