The year 1981 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

• June: Owen Beattie of the University of Alberta begins the 1845 48 Franklin Expedition Forensic Anthropology Project (FEFAP) on King William Island to trace Franklin's lost expedition.

Excavations

• Ain Ghazal is discovered during road construction outside Amman, Jordan.

Publications

• David Burgess-Wise - Automobile Archaeology (Cambridge, England: Patrick Stephens Ltd).
• Derek Roe - The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Periods in Britain (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).

Finds

• Wreck of RMS Republic (1903) located off Nantucket by Captain Martin Bayerle.^[1][2]

Awards

Miscellaneous

• Colin Renfrew is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge.
• June 12 - Film Raiders of the Lost Ark, featuring fictional 1930s archaeologist Indiana Jones, is released.

Births

Deaths

References

no:Arkeologi ret 1981