Explorations

Neolithic Tomb of the Eagles on Orkney first explored by Ronald Simison.
Anil de Silva plans an all-woman expedition to China (at this time closed to Western visitors) for herself, Romila Thapar and photographer Dominique Darbois to study the cave paintings in Dunhuang and the Maijishan Grottoes in Gansu province.^[1]

Excavations

Maya site of Dzibilchaltun, National Geographic Society project under E. Wyllys Andrews IV.
Maya site of Altar de Sacrificios, Peabody Museum project under A. Ledyard Smith and Gordon Willey (continues to 1963).
Excavation project at Sardis by Harvard University and Cornell University begins.
Excavation at Great Zimbabwe under Roger Summers.
Excavations at Adlun in Southern Lebanon under Dorothy Garrod begin (continue to 1963).
Excavations at Vaishali in Bihar begin (continue to 1962).
Excavations at Brunswick Town, North Carolina under Stanley South begin (continue to 1968).^[2]
Excavations at the Roman fort of Petuaria near Brough, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, begin (continue to 1962).
Excavations and re-erection of trilithon at Stonehenge in England.

February 7: Discovery of "Deep Skull" in Niah Caves in Sarawak by Barbara and Tom Harrisson, at around 40,000 years BP the oldest known evidence of Homo sapiens in southeast Asia.^[3]
April 2: Accidental discovery of the Caernarfon Mithraeum in Wales.
July 4: St Ninian's Isle Treasure in Shetland by Douglas Coutts.
August 18: Accidental discovery of Brymbo Man (c.2000 BCE) in Wales.
Workshop of Phidias at Olympia.
Çatalhöyük.

M. W. Beresford and J. K. S. St Joseph - Medieval England : an aerial survey.
John Chadwick - The Decipherment of Linear B.
Gordon R. Willey and Philip Phillips - Method and Theory in American Archaeology.

August 17: John Marshall, English Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (born 1876)^[5]