1993 in archaeology

Excavations

• Start of salvage excavations at Nevali Cori, to be flooded by dam.

Finds

• March – British warship (wrecked 1809) found at the mouth of the Río de la Plata.
• July – Fragment A of the Tel Dan Stele (9th–8th century BCE) is excavated in Israel.
• October 1 – Steamer Brother Jonathan (wrecked 1865) found off the coast of California.
• Portuguese nau Nossa Senhora dos Mártires (1605–06) found at the mouth of the Tagus.
• Rhinoceros horn spear end from 30,000 years BP found in Yana River delta, at the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site.
• The Guodian Chu Slips, including the oldest known version of Laozi's Tao Te Ching and the previously lost Xing Zi Ming Chu, written on bamboo, are found in a tomb near Guodian, Jingmen (Hubei province of China) and dated before 300 BCE (later Warring States period).
• In Patara the Stadiasmus Patarensis is unearthed. The monumental milestone provides information on the Roman road network in the province of Lycia et Pamphylia, giving place names and distances.
• Remains of Homo heidelbergensis found at Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, England.

Publications

• Barry Cunliffe – Wessex to AD 1000 (Longman).
• Sarah Milledge Nelson – The Archaeology of Korea (Cambridge University Press).
• Х. Тодорова, Иван Вайсов (H. Todorova, Ivan Vaisov) – "Новокаменната епоха в България" ("The Neolithic period in Bulgaria") (Издателство Наука и Изкуство (Science and Art Publishing House), Sofia).

Events

• Conservators use a sonar probe mounted with two miniature video cameras to remove any remaining clay from inside the Riace bronzes.

Deaths

• November 14 – Kim Won-yong, "father of Korean Archaeology", professor at Seoul National University (b. 1922).

See also

• Mesa Verde