1949 in archaeology

Events

• November 21-23 - First Internationales Sachsensymposion held.
• University of New Mexico transfers lands to the National Park Service and expands Chaco Canyon National Monument, with the proviso that the university may continue scientific research.

Excavations

• February 15 - Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves in the West Bank region of Jordan, the location of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
• Excavation work recommences at the Peking Man Site in Zhoukoudian, China.
• Alberto Ruz Lhuillier begins excavations of the Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque.
• Seton Lloyd begins excavations at Sakçagözü.
• Grahame Clark begins excavations at Star Carr, North Yorkshire.
• Conclusion of excavations in the Vatican Necropolis.

Finds

• Radiocarbon dating technique discovered by Willard Libby and his colleagues during his tenure as a professor at the University of Chicago.
• Anak Tomb No. 3 found in North Korea.
• New excavations at Peking Man Site in Zhoukoudian, China unearth 5 teeth and fragments of thigh and shin bone.
• First new discoveries of Nimrud ivories by British School of Archaeology in Iraq led by Max Mallowan.
• 12th century murals discovered in Coombes Church, West Sussex, England.

Publications

• 'C. W. Ceram' - Götter, Gräber und Gelehrte.
• T. D. Kendrick - Late Saxon and Viking Art.

Births

• Dolores Piperno - American archaeologist

Deaths

• 23 April - Percy Newberry, English archaeologist