2015 in archaeology explained

This page lists major archaeological events of 2015.

Explorations

• July–September – Survey and identification of British Royal Navy submarine (sunk 1914 following the Raid on Yarmouth) in the North Sea.
• University of Bradford 'Europe's Lost Frontiers' project begins mapping the Palaeolithic landscapes of Doggerland beneath the North Sea.^[1]

Excavations

• April 9–10 – A winter diving expedition on the Franklin expedition ship HMS Erebus, consisting of Parks Canada underwater archaeologists and Royal Canadian Navy divers, commences.^[2]
• May–October – Griffin Warrior Tomb near Pylos.
• September
  • Start of major excavations at Must Farm Bronze Age settlement in The Fens of eastern England by archaeologists from Cambridge.^[3]
  • Excavation of abandoned Bradford Park Avenue football stadium in England.^[4]
• End – Enigma Shipwrecks Project investigates the Levantine Sea.^[5]
• Excavation of Hill 20, a site in the Battle of Ypres, begins.
• 2015–2017 – Investigation of the Pictish site of Dunnicaer.
• Excavations at Craig Rhos-y-felin in the Preseli Hills of south-west Wales end (begun 2011).

Finds

• January 4 – The discovery of the tomb of Khentakawess III in Abusir is announced.^{[6] [7]}
• January 27 – Discovery of an extinct Homo bone under Penghu Strait in Taiwan named Penghu 1 is published.^[8]
• February 18 – Marine archaeologists and diving club members from the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that about 2,000 gold coins dating back more than 1,000 years have been discovered in Caesarea.^[9]
• Summer – Ice Age engravings dating from at least 12,000 BCE are found at Les Varines site on Jersey in the Channel Islands (part of the European continental mass when created), the earliest known art in the British Isles.^[10]
• June – Discovery of almost eight million animal mummies next to the sacred temple of Anubis is announced in Egypt, in Saqqara^[11]
• July – Discovery of two possible tunnels in Tutankhamun's tomb by Nicholas Reeves.^[12]
• October 7 – Watlington Hoard of Anglo-Saxon silver coins and other items found in Oxfordshire, England, by a metal detectorist.^[13]
• November 27 – Spanish galleon San José located off Cartagena, Colombia, in the Caribbean Sea.^[14]
• December 19 – Discovery of the wreck of a merchant ship in the Indian Ocean, thought to be the West Ridge (lost 1883).^[15]
• The lower half of one of three known statues of Egyptian pharaoh Sahure is discovered in Elkab.^[16]
• Pylos Combat Agate from Griffin Warrior Tomb excavated, but not published until 2017.^[17]
• A wood bark shield from 2300 years BP is found at Enderby, Leicestershire, in the east midlands of England.^[18]
• Wreck of British Royal Navy submarine (sunk 1943) located off Corsica.^[19]

Publications

• January 28 – Nature reports the dating of a modern human skull from Manot cave is the first evidence in support of the Out of Africa theory and shows modern humans living alongside Neanderthals in the Levant.^{[20] [21]}

Events

• March 5–8  - The ancient city sites of Nimrud, Hatra and Dur-Sharrukin in Iraq are demolished by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).^{[22] [23] [24]}
• May – The Temple of Baalshamin is destroyed by ISIS.^[25]
• June – Welsh metal detectorists discover a large Viking and Anglo-Saxon coin and jewellery hoard at Eye, Herefordshire on the English border but steal and conceal most of the find.^[26]
• June 3  - Formal confirmation that a wreck first located in the 1980s off Cape Town, South Africa, is the Portuguese São José Paquete Africa (sank 1794), the first and only confirmed find of a working slave ship sunk in transit with its human cargo aboard.^{[27] [28]}

Deaths

• January 25 – Giancarlo Ligabue, Italian paleontologist, discoverer of Ligabueino (b. 1931)^[29]
• February 25 – Sheppard Frere, British archaeologist of the Roman Empire (b. 1916)^[30]
• April 9 – Margaret Rule, British maritime archaeologist (b. 1928)^[31]
• August 18 – Khaled al-Asaad, Syrian archaeologist (b. 1934)^[32]

See also

• List of years in archaeology

Notes and References

1. Web site: Europe's Lost Frontiers. University of Bradford. 2019-05-20.
2. News: Davison. Janet. Franklin Expedition search: Ice dive team ready to discover more secrets of HMS Erebus. CBC News. 2015-04-06. 2015-04-13.
3. Web site: About - Must Farm. www.mustfarm.com. 16 May 2017.
4. Web site: Archaeological dig starts at old Bradford football stadium. BBC News. 2015-09-06. 2017-11-28.
5. News: Dalya. Alberge. Mediterranean shipwrecks reveal 'birth of globalisation' in trade. The Guardian. London. 2020-04-18. 2020-04-21.
6. Web site: Tomb of previously unknown pharaonic queen found in Egypt. The Express Tribune. Karachi. 4 January 2015. 4 January 2015.
7. News: 2015-01-05. Unknown queen's tomb found in Egypt. en-GB. BBC News. 2020-06-28.
8. Chang. Chun-Hsiang. Kaifu. Yousuke. Takai. Masanaru. Kono. Reiko T.. Grün. Rainer. Matsu’ura. Shuji. Kinsley. Les. Lin. Liang-Kong. The first archaic Homo from Taiwan. Nature Communications. 2015. 6. 6037. 10.1038/ncomms7037. 25625212. 4316746. 2015NatCo...6.6037C .
9. News: 2015-02-18. Israeli divers chance upon 'priceless' treasure on seabed. en-GB. BBC News. 2021-05-18.
10. News: Ice Age engravings found at Jersey archaeological site. Jonathan. Webb. BBC News. 2015-11-02. 2020-08-20.
11. Web site: 2015-06-24. Mass Grave Of Eight Million Mummified Dogs Unearthed Near Cairo. 2020-06-28. Egyptian Streets. en-US.
12. Web site: Inspection of King Tut's Tomb Reveals Hints of Hidden Chambers. https://web.archive.org/web/20150930072918/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150928-king-tut-tomb-door-nefertiti-archaeology-egypt/. dead. September 30, 2015. National Geographic News. 21 July 2017. 28 September 2015.
13. Web site: Watlington hoard of Viking silver casts light on Alfred the Great era. Maev Kennedy. Maev. Kennedy. The Guardian. London. 2015-12-10. 2019-12-15.
14. Web site: Galleon San Jose, the 'Holy Grail of Ship Wrecks'. Spilman. Rick. The Old Salt Blog. 2012-02-29. 2015-12-08.
15. News: Search for missing MH370 solves 19th-century British shipping mystery. David. Millward. The Daily Telegraph. London. 2018-05-03. 2018-05-17.
16. Huyge. Dirk. King Sahure in Elkab. Egyptian Archaeology. Egypt Exploration Society. 2017. 50. 0962-2837. 41–43.
17. Web site: Unearthing a masterpiece. University of Cincinnati. 1 March 2018.
18. News: Unique Iron Age shield found by Leicester archaeologists. ULAS News. 2019-05-23. 2023-01-22.
19. News: HMS Saracen: Meeting the last survivor of a submarine found 72 years after it was scuttled. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hms-saracen-meeting-the-last-survivor-of-a-submarine-found-72-years-after-it-was-scuttled-10350190.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live. The Independent. London. Gallagher. Paul. 2015-06-27. 2019-02-24.
20. Hershkovitz. Israel. Marder. Ofer. Ayalon. Avner. Bar-Matthews. Miryam. Yasur. Gal. Boaretto. Elisabetta. Caracuta. Valentina. Alex. Bridget. Frumkin. Amos. Goder-Goldberger. Mae. Gunz. Philipp. Holloway. Ralph L.. Latimer. Bruce. Lavi. Ron. Matthews. Alan. Slon. Viviane. Mayer. Daniella Bar-Yosef. Berna. Francesco. Bar-Oz. Guy. Yeshurun. Reuven. May. Hila. Hans. Mark G.. Weber. Gerhard W.. Barzilai. Omry. Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans. Nature. 2015. 520. 7546. 10.1038/nature14134. 25629628. 8. 216–9. 2015Natur.520..216H . 4386123 .
21. Web site: 55,000-Year-Old Skull Fossil Sheds New Light on Human Migration out of Africa. Science News. 29 January 2015 . 2 February 2015.
22. Web site: ISIL fighters bulldoze ancient Assyrian palace in Iraq. Al Jazeera. 5 March 2015. 6 March 2015.
23. Web site: Reports: ISIS bulldozed ancient Hatra city in Mosul - RiyadhVision. RiyadhVision. 7 March 2015. 8 March 2015.
24. Web site: Ancient site Khorsabad attacked by Islamic State: reports. Toronto Star. 8 March 2015. 8 March 2015.
25. Web site: Here Are the Ancient Sites ISIS Has Damaged and Destroyed. https://web.archive.org/web/20150904062504/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150901-isis-destruction-looting-ancient-sites-iraq-syria-archaeology/. dead. September 4, 2015. National Geographic. 14 June 2017.
26. Web site: Detectorists stole Viking hoard that 'rewrites history'. BBC News. 2019-11-21. 2019-11-21.
27. News: Henry. Gass. Wreck of slave ship: Why the São José fascinates. The Christian Science Monitor. 2015-06-01. 0882-7729. 2015-06-03.
28. Web site: Roger. Catlin. Smithsonian to Receive Artifacts From Sunken 18th-Century Slave Ship Found Off the Coast of South Africa. Smithsonian. 2015-05-31. 2015-06-03.
29. Web site: In memory of Giancarlo Ligabue. www.ligabuemagazine.it. 16 May 2017. 28 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201128012754/https://www.ligabuemagazine.it/en/news/dettaglio_21.html. dead.
30. Web site: Manning. William. Sheppard Frere obituary. The Guardian. London. 2017-05-16. 2015-03-10.
31. Web site: Margaret Rule obituary. The Guardian. London. 2015-04-16. 2017-05-17.
32. Web site: Khaled al-Asaad, curator - obituary. The Daily Telegraph. 2 September 2015 . London. 2017-05-16.