1928 in archaeology explained

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1928.

Explorations

• American astronomer and University of Arizona professor A. E. Douglass participates in a National Geographic Society research project under Neil Merton Judd exploring Chaco Canyon. Using his newly invented technique of dendrochronology, Douglass dates Chetro Ketl and dozens of Chacoan sites (through 1929).
• Tell Arpachiyah in Iraq explored by Reginald Campbell Thompson.

Excavations

• September: John Garstang conducts first excavations at Et-Tell.
• September - October: Porlock Stone Circle on Exmoor in England surveyed by Harold St George Gray.
• Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini begins excavations at Buthrotum in Epirus (modern-day Albania).
• V. Gordon Childe begins excavations at Skara Brae.
• Stuart Piggott begins excavations at Butser Hill.
• Marthe and Saint-Just Péquart begin excavation of Mesolithic sites on the Breton island of Téviec.^[1]
• The first excavations begin at Yinxu, China led by Li Chi of the Chinese Institute of History and Philosophy.
• Chinese archeologist Pei Wenzhong joins the continuing excavations at Peking Man site in Zhoukoudian, China.
• Excavations at Beit Shemesh (continue to 1931).
• Gertrude Caton Thompson begins excavations at Great Zimbabwe.
• Dorothy Garrod excavates cave sites in Judea and south Kurdistan.
• A Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft and University of Pennsylvania team led by Oscar Reuther begins excavations at Ctesiphon.^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}
• John Winter Crowfoot begins excavations of early Christian churches at Jerash (Gerasa) in Transjordan (continue to 1930).
• Mortimer Wheeler begins excavations at Lydney Park (continues to 1929).

Finds

• Continuing excavations at Peking Man Site in Zhoukoudian, China led by Davidson Black uncover more fossils of a new species he dubs Sinanthropus pekinensis.
• Ruins of Ugarit.
• First traces of Mal'ta–Buret' culture found in Siberia.
• First inscriptions of Byblos syllabary excavated by Maurice Dunand.

Publications

• V. Gordon Childe - The Most Ancient East: the oriental prelude to European prehistory.
• O. G. S. Crawford and Alexander Keiller - Wessex from the Air (Oxford).

Miscellaneous

• Davidson Black founds the Cenozoic Research Laboratory for the research and appraisal of fossils unearthed at Peking Man Site in Zhoukoudian, China
• Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum inaugurated in San Jose, California

Births

• February 2: Stanley South, American archaeologist; author of Method and Theory in Historical Archaeology (1977) (died 2016)
• March 8: Björn Ambrosiani, Swedish archaeologist
• April 26: Charles Thomas, Cornish prehistorian (died 2016)^[6]
• September 27: Margaret Rule, British maritime archaeologist (died 2015)^[7]

Deaths

Arthur Mace of the British archaeologist Howard Carter excavation team, said to have died of arsenic poisoning in 1928.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: Péquart, M.. Péquart, S.-J.. Boule, M.. Marcellin Boule. Vallois, H.. 1937. Téviec, station nécropole mésolithique du Morbihan. Paris. Archives de l'Institut de Paléontologie Humaine. Mémoire 18.
2. K.. Schippmann. Ktesiphon-Expedition im Winter 1928/29. Grundzüge der parthischen Geschichte. Darmstadt. 1980.
3. E.. Meyer. Seleukia und Ktesiphon. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin. 67. 1–26. 1929.
4. O.. Reuther. The German Excavations at Ctesiphon. Antiquity. 3. 12. 434–451. 1929. 10.1017/S0003598X00003781 . 163969599 .
5. J.. Upton. The Expedition to Ctesiphon 1931–1932. Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 27. 188–197. 1932. 8 . 10.2307/3255274 . 3255274 .
6. News: Fowler. Peter. Charles Thomas obituary. The Guardian. London. 25 August 2017. 8 May 2016.
7. News: Margaret Rule obituary. The Guardian. 17 May 2017.
8. Tutankhamun's Curse?, Published in History Today Volume 64 Issue 3 March 2014