title: 1955 in archaeology
text: # 1955 in archaeology
  
  The year 1955 in archaeology involved some significant events.
  
  ## Explorations
  
  * Thor Heyerdahl organizes the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island (continues to 1956).
  * Start of extensive discoveries at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery on Loveden Hill in Lincolnshire, England.
  
  ## Excavations
  
  * September - Gustav Riek begins systematic excavations at Brillenhöhle (continues to 1963).
  * A. C. O'Dell begins excavations on St Ninian's Isle (continues to 1958).
  * Alexander Sahinian begins excavations at Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia (continues to 1956).
  * 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 (continues to 1957).
  * A Hebrew University team led by Yigal Yadin begins excavations at Tel Hazor (continues to 1958).
  * Excavation of Qujialing culture type site in China begins (continues to 1957).
  
  ## 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 (Penguin Books).
  
  ## 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 (OH) 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 (b. 1881).
  * March 31 - Thomas Dunbabin, Australian-born Classical archaeologist and Greek Resistance leader (b. 1911).
  * August 17 - Edward Thurlow Leeds, English archaeologist of the Anglo-Saxons (b. 1877).
  * October 29 - Alexander Keiller, British archaeologist and benefactor (b. 1889).
  * December 15 - V. E. Nash-Williams, Welsh archaeologist (b. 1897).
  * December 25 - Thomas J. Preston, Jr., American archaeologist (b. 1862).
  