1886 in archaeology

Excavations

• October 4 – Augustus Pitt Rivers begins excavation of the Romano-British settlement site on Rotherley Down.

Finds

• September – Beothuk child burial on an island of Newfoundland.
• The well-preserved skeletons of a Neanderthal man and woman with Mousterian stone implements are found in the Betche aux Roches cavern at Spy, Belgium, by Maximin Lohest and Marcel de Puydt.
• Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan recorded by Thomas Holdich.
• Armed Aphrodite statue in Epidaurus, Greece.

Events

• June 10 – Te Wairoa is buried by a volcanic eruption.

Births

• October 28 – O. G. S. Crawford, British archaeologist.

Deaths

• January 9 – James Fergusson, Scottish-born antiquarian, architect and merchant.
• June 5 – Llewellynn Jewitt, British archaeologist, illustrator and natural scientist.