Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1917.

Explorations

• Thomas Gann makes the first detailed description of Maya ruins at Lamanai in British Honduras.

Excavations

• Max Uhle discovers 12 Chinchorro mummies at Morro I, Arica, Chile.
• Religious artefacts discovered beneath the Seven-story Stone Pagoda in Tappyeong-ri, Chungju, Korea.

Publications

• Wang Guowei reconstructs a complete Shang dynasty royal genealogy based on the translation of oracle bones from the site of Yinxu.

Births

• 14 October: Geoffrey Bibby, English-born archaeologist (d. 2001)^[1]
• 15 October: Ralph Solecki, American archeologist (d. 2019)^[2]
• 28 October: Honor Frost, Cyprus-born underwater archaeologist (d. 2010)^[3]
• 31 January: Sinclair Hood, British classical archaeologist (d. 2021)^[4]

Deaths

• 15 October: Maxime Collignon, French Classical archaeologist (b. 1849)^[5]
• 27 October: Worthington George Smith, English illustrator, palaeolithic archaeologist and mycologist (b. 1835)^[6]
• 22 November: Teoberto Maler, German explorer, archaeologist and writer of accounts of the ruins of the Maya civilization (b. 1842)