1952 in archaeology

Explorations

• Site of Kerkouane discovered by Charles Saumagne.
• Archaeological exploration of Maijishan Grottoes begins.

Excavations

• Alberto Ruz Lhuillier opens the tomb of Pacal the Great at Palenque.
• Major excavations begin at Viking burial site of Lindholm Høje.
• Excavations at Jericho led by Kathleen Kenyon begin.
• Excavations at the Palace of Nestor in Pylos resume by Carl Blegen.
• Oscar Broneer discovers and begins excavations of the Temple of Poseidon in Isthmia.

Publications

• J. G. D. Clark - Prehistoric Europe: the Economic Basis.
• David Knowles and J. K. S. St Joseph - Monastic Sites from the Air.

Finds

• In Schleswig, Germany, Windeby I and Windeby II, bog bodies, were discovered in a peat bog during a span of three months.
• Another bog body, known as "Grauballe Man" is discovered in Grauballe, Denmark.

Events

• Grahame Clark is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge.
• August 23 - Glyn Daniel begins to present Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? on BBC Television, a game show often featuring other archaeologists and archaeological artefacts.
• Michael Ventris deciphers Minoan Linear B.

Births

• March 30 - Alan Vince, British archaeologist

Deaths

• Alfred Foucher, French scholar and archaeologist