1979 in archaeology

	… 1969; 1970; 1971; 1972; 1973; 1974; 1975; ; 1976; 1977; 1978; 1979; 1980; 1981; 1982; ; 1983; 1984; 1985; 1986; 1987; 1988; 1989 …;
	In science 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

The year 1979 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Explorations

Tillya Tepe surveyed by a Soviet-Afghan mission of archaeologists led by Victor Sarianidi.

July - Fossil hominid footprints found at Laetoli, Tanzania, by Mary Leakey.
Wreck of SS Xantho found off Western Australia.^[1]
Wreck of HMS Stirling Castle (1679) found on the Goodwin Sands.
Wreck of English ship Swan (1641) found off the west coast of Scotland.
Wreck of French-built English ship HMS Invincible (1747) found in The Solent.
Burial site related to the 1918 execution of the Romanov family at Yekaterinburg, by Alexander Avdonin.^[2]
Roman fort at Elginhaugh discovered by air-photography.
Black rat bones from about the fifth century AD reported as found in York, the first pre-medieval record in England.^[3]
The prehistoric site of Isernia La Pineta discovered during the construction of a road link of Strada statale 85.

Aubrey Burl - Prehistoric Avebury.
J. M. Coles and A. F. Harding - The Bronze Age in Europe: an introduction to the prehistory of Europe, c.2000–700 BC.
Kenneth Hudson - World Industrial Archaeology.
A. L. F. Rivet and Colin Smith - The Place-names of Roman Britain.
Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History series founded by David Brown, James Campbell, and Sonia Chadwick Hawkes.^[4]

June 2 - Protesters opposed to the building of civic offices on the site of Viking excavations in Wood Quay, Dublin, occupy the area.

January 15 - Yang Zhongjian, father of Chinese vertebrate paleontology, buried at Peking Man site in Zhoukoudian, China (b. 1897)
January 20 - Robert Wauchope, American archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1909)
January 24 - Raissa Calza, Ukrainian-born archaeologist of Ancient Rome, previously ballet dancer (b. 1894)
August 1 - Li Ji, Chinese archaeologist (b. 1896)^[5]
August 25 - Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, Mexican archaeologist, discoverer of the tomb of K'inich Janaab' Pakal at Palenque (b. 1906)
December 14 - Charles McBurney, American-born archaeologist working in Britain (b. 1914)

^ "SS Xantho". Western Australian Museum. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
^ Coble, Michael D. (2011-09-26). "The identification of the Romanovs". Investigative Genetics. 2 (1): 20. doi:10.1186/2041-2223-2-20. PMC 3205009. PMID 21943354.
^ James Rackham, Antiquity 53:112.
^ "Obituary: Sonia Chadwick Hawkes". The Independent. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
^ "Li Chi". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 17 May 2017.