1881 in archaeology

Explorations

• Alfred Maudslay begins his thorough examination of Quiriguá.

Excavations

• Timgad, Algeria, is excavated.
• The excavations at Olympia, Greece which began in 1875 and were led by Ernst Curtius end.
• Mount Nemrut, Turkey, is excavated by German engineer Karl Sester.
• Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico is investigated by Swiss-born American archaeologist Adolph Bandelier.
• Pyramid of Unas in Egypt is investigated by French archaeologist Gaston Maspero.

Finds

• March – Augustus Pitt Rivers finds palaeolithic flints in concreted gravels of the Nile terraces near Thebes.
• July 6 – "Official" discovery of the Royal Cache collective tomb at Deir el-Bahari in Egypt, containing eleven pharaohs and dozens of other royal individuals. The contents are removed within 48 hours.
• Capt. H. L. Wells, RE, finds Qadamgah in Fars province, Persia (Iran).
• The birch bark Bakhshali manuscript, incorporating perhaps the earliest known use of mathematical zero, is unearthed near Bakhshali in British India.

Publications

• John Evans – The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland.
• H. A. Fletcher – "The archaeology of the west Cumberland iron trade". Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Archaeological Society 5:5-21.
• Possible earliest use of the term "Industrial archaeology" in the English language.

Other events

• February 22 – 'Cleopatra's Needle' erected in Central Park, New York.

Births

• December 19 – Hetty Goldman, American archaeologist

Deaths

• January 24 – Frances Stackhouse Acton, English botanist, archaeologist, artist and writer
• May 19 – Joseph Barnard Davis, English craniologist
• June 21 – Ferdinand Keller, Swiss archaeologist