Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1939.
Excavations Major excavation of Ostia Antica in Italy begins (continues to 1942). University of Pennsylvania project at Piedras Negras, Guatemala ends (started 1931). Palace of Nestor in Pylos by Carl Blegen (resumed 1952-69). Tomb of Psusennes at Tanis by Pierre Montet (started 1928). Deserted medieval village of Seacourt near Oxford by Rupert Bruce-Mitford (June–July 15). Medieval settlement at Bere, North Tawton, England, by Martyn Jope. Bowl barrow at Knap Hill, Wiltshire, England, by C. W. Phillips.
Publications Grahame Clark: Archaeology and Society.
Finds May Sutton Hoo ship burial unearthed by Basil Brown and Edith Pretty in Suffolk, England. On July 28 the Sutton Hoo helmet is excavated. Battle of Thermopylae site unearthed by Spyridon Marinatos in Greece. August 25: The Lion-man statue is discovered in the Hohlenstein-Stadel, a cave in southern Germany. Matthew Stirling discovers the bottom half of Stela C at Tres Zapotes in Veracruz, Mexico. Wyllys Andrews discovers the Maya civilization site of Kulubá in Yucatán, Mexico.
Miscellaneous May 6: Dorothy Garrod is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge, the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair.
Births January 15: Neil Cossons, English industrial archaeologist and museum director July 12: Peter Addyman, English archaeologist November 6: Peter J. Reynolds, English experimental archaeologist (d. 2001) December 10: Barry Cunliffe, English archaeologist November 27: Malcolm Todd, English archaeologist (d. 2013)
Deaths March 2: Howard Carter, English Egyptologist (b. 1874)
References