1877 in archaeology

Explorations

• Artist and photographer William Henry Jackson participates in the Hayden Survey of the Western United States, producing maps of Chaco Canyon, but no photographs due to technical problems.

Excavations

• French diplomat and archaeologist Ernest de Sarzec begins excavation at Girsu in Mesopotamia.
• City architect Charles Edward Davis begins extended excavation and reconstruction at the Roman Baths (Bath) in England.
• George Smith excavates Later Stone Age tools in caves near Smithfield, Free State.

Finds

• May 8 - Hermes and the Infant Dionysus is first uncovered at the site of the Temple of Hera, Olympia, Greece, by German archaeologist Ernst Curtius; it is later exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.

Publications

• Canon William Greenwell - British Barrows: a record of the examination of sepulchral mounds in various parts of England; together with description of figures of skulls, general remarks on prehistoric crania, and an appendix by George Rolleston.
• John Postlethwaite - Mines and Mining in the Lake District.
• Ephraim G. Squier - Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas.

Miscellaneous

• May 17 - Witcham Gravel helmet, found, probably earlier this decade, in Cambridgeshire, England, is first displayed, to the Society of Antiquaries of London by Augustus Wollaston Franks.

Births

• June 16 - Karel Absolon, Czech archaeologist
• July 29 - Edward Thurlow Leeds, English archaeologist of the Anglo-Saxons

Deaths

• October 17 - Johann Carl Fuhlrott, discoverer of Neanderthal Man