1760s in archaeology

Explorations

• 1764: First systematic mapping of the Antonine Wall by William Roy.

Excavations

• Formal excavations continue at Pompeii.
• 1757: Rev. Bryan Faussett begins excavations at Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Kent, England.

Finds

• 1761-1767: Carsten Niebuhr transcribes the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis.
• 1765: Nathaniel Davison discovers a stress-relieving chamber above the Kings chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Publications

• 1762: James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett's Antiquities of Athens.
• 1764:
• * Robert Adam's Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia.
• * Johann Joachim Winckelmann's Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums.

Other events

• 1764: French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélemy deciphers the Phoenician language using the inscriptions on the Cippi of Melqart from Malta.

Births

• 1760:
• * January 6 - Richard Polwhele, Cornish antiquarian
• * June 8 - Karl Böttiger, German archaeologist
• 1763:
• * November 19 - Karl Ludwig Fernow, German art critic and archaeologist
• * Samuel Lysons, English antiquarian
• 1766: March 16? - Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer
• 1769:
• * March 23 - William Smith, English geologist
• * August 23 - Georges Cuvier, French naturalist, zoologist and paleontologist
• * September 14 - Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian explorer and writer

Deaths

• 1765:
• * March 3 - William Stukeley, English antiquarian
• * September 5 - Anne Claude de Caylus, French archaeologist
• 1767: June 17 - Jean-Baptiste Greppo, French canon and archaeologist
• 1768: June 8 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German art critic and archaeologist