2011 in archaeology

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The year 2011 in archaeology

Explorations

• January: Teams commence a survey of the World War II Auxiliary Units headquarters site at Coleshill on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border in England.^[1]

Excavations

• Spring: Excavation of unused British escape tunnel "George" (c. September 1944) at the site of the Stalag Luft III camp in Żagań (present-day Poland) by a British team.^[2]

Publications

• Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo - The Statues That Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island (Free Press).^[3]
• Robert Van De Noort - North Sea Archaeologies: a maritime biography 10,000 BC–AD 1500 (Oxford University Press).
• February 16 - Scientists from the Natural History Museum publish^[4] an analysis of human skulls from 14,700 years BP found at Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, England, around 1987, which they believe were deliberately fashioned into ritual drinking cups. Human bones butchered and discarded nearby also suggest the practice of cannibalism.^[5]
• March - Archaeologists writing in Science argue that 15,500 BP finds from near Austin, Texas overturn the theory that the Clovis culture represents the earliest settlers in North America.^[6]

Finds

• January 11: An article in Journal of Archaeological Science reveals the discovery of the earliest known winemaking equipment in caves in Armenia, from 6,000 years BP.^[7]
• February 11 - Marine archaeologists from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announce the discovery of artefacts from the whaling ship Two Brothers which sank off the French Frigate Shoals atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands on February 11, 1823 under Captain George Pollard, Jr.^[8][9]
• March 10 - English archaeologists report finding one of the earliest complete Neolithic pots in the country on a housing development in Didcot. It is thought to be about 5,500 years old.^[10]
• March 25 - The discovery of the Jordan Lead Codices, a series of codices from a cave in Jordan, is announced. The books, which reportedly contain early Christian symbols are purportedly around 2,000 years old. The authenticity of the codices is doubted.^[11][12]
• October - Excavators from Museum of London Archaeology first uncover remains of the Elizabethan Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch.^[13][14][15]
• October 19 - The discovery of the United Kingdom mainland's first fully intact Viking ship burial site, at Ardnamurchan in the western Scottish Highlands, is announced.^[16]
• December - The discovery of the wreck of World War I British J class submarine HMS J6 (sunk in a friendly fire incident in October 1918) by divers off the Northumberland Coast of England is announced.^[17]
• First dugout canoes from Must Farm Bronze Age settlement in The Fens of eastern England discovered.

Miscellaneous

• February 11 - The Pergamon Museum in Berlin stages a major exhibition of reconstructed Neo-Hittite sculpture and other material from Max von Oppenheim's collection (largely destroyed in 1943).^[18]
• July - The site of Venta Icenorum in Norfolk, England, is taken into public ownership.^[19]
• August - Announcement that 2010 dive surveys suggest that a wreck found off the coast of Donegal in Ireland is from the Spanish Armada.^[20]

Deaths

• February 19 - Anson Rainey, author and Professor Emeritus of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and Semitic Linguistics at Tel Aviv University (b. 1930).^[21]
• April 11 - Lewis Binford, known for his development of processual archaeology.^[22]
• June 2 - Philip Rahtz, English archaeologist (b. 1921).^[23]

References

1. "Archaeologists survey Churchill's secret headquarters". BBC News. 2011-01-23. Archived from the original on 25 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
2. Robb, Stephen (2011-01-19). "By George! Fourth Great Escape tunnel to be excavated". BBC News. Archived from the original on 20 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
3. Bahn, Paul (2011-08-11). "Anthropology: Head to head". Nature 476 (7359): 150–151. doi:10.1038/476150a.
4. Bello, Silvia M.; et al. (February 2011). "Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups". PLoS ONE 6 (2): e17026. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017026. PMC 3040189. PMID 21359211. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
5. Amos, Jonathan (2011-02-16). "Ancient Britons 'drank from skulls'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
6. Rincon, Paul; Amos, Jonathan (2011-03-24). "Stone tools 'demand new American story'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 1 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
7. "'Oldest known wine-making facility' found in Armenia". BBC News. 2011-01-11. Archived from the original on 13 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
8. McKinley, Jesse (February 11, 2011). "No ‘Moby-Dick’: A Real Captain, Twice Doomed". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
9. "'Moby Dick' captain's ship found". BBC News. 2011-02-12. Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-12.
10. "Complete neolithic pot found in Didcot". BBC News. 2011-03-10. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
11. Robert Pigott, Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics, 29 March 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
12. Natalie Wolchover, Exclusive: Early Christian Lead Codices Now Called Fakes, April 11, 2011, retrieved April 12, 2011
13. Thomas, Chris (August 2012). "Raising the Curtain". Current Archaeology (London) (269): 10–13.
14. "Remains of Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre discovered in Shoreditch" (Press release). Museum of London Archaeology. 2012-06-06. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
15. Kennedy, Maev (2012-06-05). "Shakespeare's Curtain theatre unearthed in east London". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2012-07-12.
16. "Ardnamurchan Viking boat burial discovery 'a first'". BBC News. 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
17. Fletcher, Richard (2011-12-04). "Divers find WWI submarine wreck off Seahouses coast". Sunday Sun (Newcastle). Retrieved 2012-01-10.
18. Schultz, Matthias (28 January 2011). "The Spectacular Life and Finds of Max von Oppenheim". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
19. Kennedy, Maev (9 July 2011). "Norfolk Roman town site goes into public ownership". The Guardian.
20. "Irish archaeologists say Spanish Armada wreck found". DNA. Mumbai. 2011-08-06. Retrieved 2011-07-13.
21. http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/
22. "Legendary archaeologist Lewis Binford passes away". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 2011-04-14.
23. Hills, Catherine (2011-07-30). "Philip Rahtz". The Guardian (London). p. 37.