1955 in archaeology

Explorations

• Thor Heyerdahl organizes the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island.
• Start of extensive discoveries at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery on Loveden Hill in Lincolnshire, England.

Excavations

• September - Gustav Riek begins systematic excavations at Brillenhöhle.
• A. C. O'Dell begins excavations on St Ninian's Isle.
• Alexander Sahinian begins excavations at Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia.
• A. Ledyard Smith makes the first archaeological investigation of the Mayan site of Chutixtiox in Guatemala.
• Archaeological Survey of India begins excavations at Nagda chalcolithic site.
• A Hebrew University team led by Yigal Yadin begins excavations at Tel Hazor.
• Excavation of Qujialing culture type site in China begins.

Publications

• Cyril Fox - Offa's Dyke: a Field Survey of the Western Frontier Works of Mercia in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries AD.
• Ivan D. Margary - Roman Roads in Britain, vol. 1.
• I. A. Richmond - Roman Britain.

Finds

• May 19 - Greenock Coin Hoard in Scotland.
• Pesse canoe, the oldest known boat, in the Netherlands.
• First remains of Paranthropus boisei — teeth of Olduvai Hominin 3 — unearthed in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.

Miscellaneous

• October - The term "Industrial archaeology" is popularised.

Births

• January 1 - Mary Beard, English Classicist.
• April 20 - Svante Pääbo, Swedish paleogeneticist.
• September 30 - Martin Millett, English Classical archaeologist.

Deaths

• January 1 - Arthur C. Parker, part-Seneca American archaeologist and ethnographer of Native Americans in the United States.
• March 31 - Thomas Dunbabin, Australian-born Classical archaeologist and Greek Resistance leader.
• August 17 - Edward Thurlow Leeds, English archaeologist of the Anglo-Saxons.
• October 29 - Alexander Keiller, British archaeologist and benefactor.
• December 15 - V. E. Nash-Williams, Welsh archaeologist.
• December 25 - Thomas J. Preston, Jr., American archaeologist.