1994 in archaeology
The year 1994 in archaeology involved some significant events.
Excavations
- National Institute of Anthropology and History excavations at Maya site of Chacchoben begin
- Ruth Shady's work on the Norte Chico civilization site at Caral in Peru begins
- Martin Carver's excavations of an early medieval Pictish monastery at Portmahomack, Scotland, begin
- Jeffrey P. Brain begins work on the Popham Colony
Publications
- Alan K. Bowman – Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and its People.
- Marc Bermann – Lukurmata: Household Archaeology in Prehispanic Bolivia.
- Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza – The History and Geography of Human Genes.
- Gillian Hutchinson – Medieval Ships and Shipping.
- Naomi F. Miller and Kathryn L. Gleason – The Archaeology of Garden and Field.
- John Schofield and Alan Vince – Medieval Towns.
Finds
- 26 June – British submarine, lost on sea trials in 1943, is rediscovered in the Sound of Bute off the west coast of Scotland.
- Late – Marine archaeologists led by Jean-Yves Empereur find remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt.
- December
- * Spotted horses and human hands, Pech Merle cave, Dordogne, France.
- * Wall painting with horses, rhinoceroses and aurochs, Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardèche Gorges, France.
- Kafkania pebble.
- Moroccan gold coins and jewellery discovered at Salcombe Cannon Wreck site off the coast of south-west England.
- Diver Colin Martin discovers the wreck of the Hanover off the coast of Cornwall.
- Sannai-Maruyama Site discovered at Aomori, northern Honshu, Japan.
- Recovery of Homo antecessor skeletal remains from the Trinchera Dolina at the archaeological site of Atapuerca in northern Spain begins; these are the oldest known hominid fossils found in western Europe.
- 'Ardi', the fossilized skeletal remains of a female Ardipithecus ramidus, discovered at Aramis, Ethiopia, in the Afar Depression, the oldest known hominid fossil.
- First of the Schöningen spears.
Other events
- 16 January – British archaeological television series Time Team first shown on Channel 4.
- 12 March – Kabul Museum building hit by rocket fire and destroyed.
- ASPRO chronology published.
- The British Library acquires the Kharosti scrolls, the oldest collection of Buddhist manuscripts in the world.
Deaths
- 10 March – Rupert Bruce-Mitford, English archaeologist
- 27 March – Elisabeth Schmid, German archaeologist and osteologist
- 8 September – Margaret Guido, English archaeologist
- 10 October – Richard J. C. Atkinson, English archaeologist and prehistorian