1887 in archaeology

Excavations

• June-July - Carl Humann works at Hierapolis.

Finds

• A local woman digging for sebakh at Amarna uncovers a cache of over 300 cuneiform tablets containing diplomatic correspondence of the Pharaohs, now commonly known as the Amarna Letters.
• German submersible Brandtaucher, which sank on trial in the port of Kiel in 1851, is discovered, and on July 5 is raised.

Publications

• William Ivison Macadam - "Notes on the Ancient Iron Industry of Scotland", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
• Augustus Pitt Rivers - Excavations in Cranborne Chase, vol. 1

Miscellaneous

• The Reverend George Brown is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge.

Births

• January 27 - Carl Blegen, American archaeologist of Greece
• October 27 - Neil Judd, American archaeologist

Deaths

• September 1 - Jules Desnoyers, French geologist and archaeologist