1978 in archaeology

Table of years in archaeology
	1968; 1969; 1970; 1971; 1972; 1973; 1974; 1975; 1976; 1977; 1978; 1979; 1980; 1981; 1982; 1983; 1984; 1985; 1986; 1987; 1988;
Related time period or subjects
	…; 1975; 1976; 1977; 1978; 1979; 1980; 1981; …; …; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s; …; …; 19th century; 20th century; 21st century; …;

The year 1978 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Excavations

New excavations at Brahmagiri by Amalananda Ghosh.
Excavations begin at Bontnewydd Palaeolithic site in Wales.
New excavations begin at Holyhead Mountain Hut Circles on Holy Island, Anglesey, off the coast of Wales.
Comprehensive excavations at Alepotrypa cave in Greece begin.
Excavation of Proto-Elamite levels of Susa in Iran.

February 21 - The remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan.
March - Pictish stone depicting a bearded figure at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Bactrian Gold hoard.
A new Shapwick hoard of Roman copper coins in England.
Cherchen Man in China.
A fossilized partial human cranium is among hominid remains found in Apidima Cave in southern Greece; in 2019 it is announced as dating to more than 210,000 years BP, making it the earliest example of Homo sapiens outside Africa.^[1]
Wreck of a Basque whaling galleon, probably the San Juan, off Saddle Island, Labrador.

Lewis R. Binford - Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology.
Mounir Bouchenaki - Cités antiques d'Algérie.
Richard A. Gould (ed.) - Explorations in Ethnoarchaeology.
Keith Muckelroy - Maritime Archaeology.
Paleontologist Björn Kurtén's short novel Dance of the Tiger, dealing with the interaction between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals, is published in Sweden as Den Svarta Tigern.

Theban Mapping Project is established.
September - Thousands march through Dublin to Wood Quay to protest against the building of civic offices on the Viking site.^[2]

August 19 - Sir Max Mallowan, English archaeologist (born 1904).^[3]
October 8 - Bertha Cody, Native American archaeologist (born 1907).
November 8 - Terence Mitford, British archaeologist of the Near East (born 1905).

^ Harvati, Katerina; Röding, Carolin; Bosman, Abel M.; Karakostis, Fotios A.; Grün, Rainer; Stringer, Chris; Karkanas, Panagiotis; Thompson, Nicholas C.; Koutoulidis, Vassilis; Moulopoulos, Lia A.; Gorgoulis, Vassilis G.; Kouloukoussa, Mirsini (10 July 2019). "Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia". Nature. 571 (7766): 500–504. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1376-z. PMID 31292546.
^ "Wood Quay 1978-79". Independent.ie. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
^ "Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) 122093 - National Trust Collections". www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2017.