2002 in archaeology

Explorations

March – Part of the podium of the Temple of Apollo in Mdina, Malta is discovered and subsequently excavated.

February – Remains of oldest known European early modern humans at this time found in Peștera cu Oase, Romania.
May 1 – Horncastle boar's head, an early 7th-century Anglo-Saxon ornament, probably part of a helmet crest, discovered in the eastern English town of Horncastle by a metal detectorist.
May 3 – Amesbury Archer, a Bronze Age burial found near Stonehenge in England.
June – Newport Ship in south-east Wales.
October – Banc Ty'nddôl sun-disc in mid-Wales.
3,500-year-old human remains found in the Citadel of Damascus.
Mask of la Roche-Cotard found beside the Loire in France.

Brief reappearance and study of Seaton Carew Wreck.
Ciampate del Diavolo come to scientific attention.
December 29 – 70,000 excavated artifacts from the Ōfune Site in Japan are damaged or destroyed when fire breaks out in an exhibition room.