1970 in archaeology
# 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 (The Mound People: Danish bronze-age man preserved).

## 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.
* 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.
* Submarine CSS H. L. Hunley (sunk in action 1864) is claimed to be located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by E. Lee Spence.
* 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 (b. 1885)
* May 29 - Jaroslav Černý, Czech-British Egyptologist (b. 1898)
