1900 in archaeology

Events

• September 9 – The François Vase is smashed into 638 pieces by a museum guard.

Excavations

• March 16 – Arthur Evans purchases Knossos on Crete and soon after begins excavations.
• Excavations by Friedrich Delitzsch begin at Assur.
• University of Pennsylvania excavations at Nippur conclude.
• Gordium excavated by Gustav and Alfred Körte.
• Kavousi excavated by Harriet Boyd.
• Villa Boscoreale, near Pompeii, excavated.
• Excavations at Hedeby in Jutland begin.

Finds

• April 5 – A large cache of clay tablets with a script used for writing Mycenaean Greek, which becomes known as Linear B, is found at Knossos.
• May – Migdale Hoard of early Bronze Age jewellery discovered near Bonar Bridge in Scotland.
• October – Greek sponge divers discover the Antikythera wreck.
• Dr. James K. Hampson documents find of the Island 35 Mastodon skeleton in the Mississippi River.
• Site of Temple of Eshmun discovered in Lebanon.

Births

• May 2 – A. W. Lawrence, English Classical archaeologist.
• May 23 – Gustav Riek, German archaeologist.
• August 18 – Glenn Albert Black, American archaeologist.
• August 19 – Dorothy Burr Thompson, American archaeologist and art historian.

Deaths

• May 4 – Augustus Pitt Rivers, English ethnologist and archaeologist.
• May 18 – Félix Ravaisson-Mollien, French philosopher and archaeologist.