1970 in archaeology

Explorations

• Historic American Engineering Record surveys the original main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Excavations

• June - Wreck of Spanish Armada ship El Gran Grifón off Fair Isle excavated by Colin Martin and Sydney Wignall.
• Joint British Museum, Harvard University and University of Cambridge project begins at Maya site of Lubaantun under leadership of Norman Hammond.
• Five-year project at Altun Ha, led by Dr. David Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum, ends.
• Retrieval of artefacts from wreck of Batavia off Western Australia begins.
• Joint Archaeological Survey of India and University of Cambridge excavations at Malvan in Gujarat.
• Alepotrypa cave in Greece.

Publications

• P. V. Glob - Hojfolket: Bronzealderens mennesker bevaret i 3000 år.

Finds

• July - Heilongjiang hand cannon, dating from c. 1288, discovered by Wei Guozhong in Manchuria.
• October 21 - Loose timber from the wreck of the Tudor warship Mary Rose found in the Solent off the coast of England.
• October 25 - Submarine CSS H. L. Hunley is claimed to be located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by E. Lee Spence.
• First Botorrita plaque.
• Sweet Track discovered by John Sweet in the Somerset Levels of England.
• Blackfriars Ships III and IV discovered by Peter Marsden in London.
• Buckquoy spindle-whorl, dating from the Early Middle Ages, probably the 8th century, excavated in Buckquoy, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland; notable because of its Ogham inscription.

Events

• July 12 - Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus boat Ra II arrives in Barbados after a 57-day voyage from Morocco.
• Butser Ancient Farm set up as an experimental archaeology site by the Council for British Archaeology.

Births

• March 9 – Fereidoun Biglari, Iranian archaeologist and museum curator

Deaths

• May 6 - Sir John Beazley, British Classical archaeologist
• May 29 - Jaroslav Černý, Czech-British Egyptologist