This page lists major events of 2021 in archaeology.
Excavations
January 29 – The Herculaneum Conservation Project announces it will begin excavations of a beach where 300 skeletons of victims from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 CE have been discovered.[1]
January 30 – Excavation of an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery site in west Cambridge, England, is reported.[2]
February 4 – Preliminary excavations on the intended site of the Stonehenge road tunnel in England have uncovered Bronze Age graves and neolithic pottery among other features, it is reported.[3]
May 19 – Decapitated bodies found at Knobb's Farm, Somersham, Cambridgeshire in eastern England, are victims of Roman executions in the 3rd century.[5]
3 – Archaeologists announce the discovery of the ruins of a 2500 year-old temple of Aphrodite from the 5th century BC, a terracotta female head and an inscription in the Urla-Çeşme peninsula.[7][8][9]
8 – Archaeologists from Israel Antiquities Authority announce the discovery of a tombstone dating back 1,400 years with a Greek inscription by an employee of the Parks and Nature Authority at Nitzana National Park in the Negev desert.[10][11]
10 – A stash of four gold and 7,000 silver coins discovered in Újlengyel, Hungary, is dated back to the 16th century.[12]
13 – Discovery of the earliest known painting of an animal, a life-size Celebes warty pig, from at least 45,000 years BP, in a cave in South Sulawesi (Indonesia) located by an Australian-led team is announced.[13]
14 – Discovery of the graves of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum Kilij Arslan I and his daughter Saide Hatun's burial in Silvan, Diyarbakir is announced.[14]
17 – Further discoveries at the Saqqara necropolis site in Egypt, including 50 wooden coffins and a royal funerary temple, made by a team under Zahi Hawass, are announced.[15]
Archaeologists report the discovery of what may be the earliest evidence of human use of symbols – six lines engraved on a ~120-ky-old bone in the site of Nesher Ramla in Israel.[21][22]
21 – Four shipwrecks, one dating to Roman times, are found near Kasos Island, Greece, in the Aegean Sea.[23]
27 – Pamukkale University archaeologists announce the discovery of a cache containing 651 Roman coins dated about 2,100 years ago in a jug buried near a stream in Aizanoi in Turkey.[25][26][27]
28 – Israeli archaeologists find ruins of a mosque in Tiberias that is believed to date from about 670 CE.[28]
29 – 16 burials discovered in Taposiris Magna, Egypt, dated back to the Greek and Roman eras, some with gold leaf tongues, are reported.[29]
January – A Roman ceremonial carriage is discovered near the stables of an ancient villa at Civita Giuliana, north of Pompeii, Italy.[30]
February
2 – Archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announce the discovery of Ptolemaic period temple, a Roman fort and an early Coptic church and an inscription written in hieratic script at an archaeological site called Shiha Fort in Aswan.[31][32]
14 – Polish archaeologists from Jagiellonian University announce the discovery of ancient rock art with anthropomorphic figures in a good condition at the Amak’hee 4 rockshelter site in Swaga Swaga Game Reserve in Tanzania. Paintings made with a reddish dye also depict buffalo heads, giraffe's head and neck, and domesticated cattle dated back to about several hundred years ago.[36][37]
17 – Discovery of more than 300 Stone Age tools and artefacts in Rhuddlan in Denbighshire by archaeologists from Aeon Archaeology is announced.[38][39]
18
Two 1,800-year-old sarcophagi found in Ramat Gan Safari, Israel, date back to the Roman period.[40]
Discovery of a punic necropolis during sewage system renovation works in Marsala.[41]
1,000-year-old gold and silver Viking jewellery is unearthed on the Isle of Man.[42]
23 – Archaeologists from DigVentures announce the discovery of at least 15 roundhouses dating from 400 to 100 BC. and remains of a Roman villa in England dating from 3rd to early 4th century CE.[43][44]
24 – A hamam (bathhouse) thought to date from the 12th century has been discovered during refurbishment of a bar in Seville (modern-day Spain, historic Al-Andalus), it is announced.[45]
March
1 – Discovery of the marblesarcophagus which is 1.5 meters tall and 33 centimeters wide in the Seyitgazi district at the Küllüoba site in Turkey during municipal construction work is announced.[46][47]
13 – Buildings constructed of basalt stone and mud bricks, and carved into the rocks along with Greek religious inscriptions, date back to between the fourth and seventh centuries AD, found in 2020 at the Tal area south of Qasr Al-Ajouz in the Bahariya Oasis of Egypt, are reported.[48]
19 – A 2,500-years-old bronze figurine of a bull is unearthed following heavy rain near Olympia, Greece.[49]
21 – The partially mummified 6000-year-old remains of a child, probably a girl aged between 6 and 12 along with 2,000-year-old Dead Sea scrolls is found in Cave of Horror in Israel.[50][51]
22 – A 3,000-year-old gold mask along with 500 cultural relics is unearthed at Sanxingdui, China.[52]
April
April – Archaeologists locate a hoard of Roman currency at a cave in the Asturias region of Spain originally unearthed by a badger.[53]
6 – A 4,000-year-old stone, the Saint-Bélec slab, is identified as being the oldest known map of a territory in the world.
8 – A 3,000-year-old city, Aten, established by King Amenhotep III, has been discovered in a 7-month excavation on the western bank of Luxor, Egypt.[54][55]
14 – A high status Roman complex excavated at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, said by Historic England to be "one of the most important Roman discoveries in the past decade", is reported.[56]
21 – Irish archaeologists announce the discovery of an untouched Bronze Age grave, skeletal remains, fragments of human bone and a large semicircular slab in the underground passageway on the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry.[58][59]
5 – A 2,000-year-old oil lamp has been discovered at the foundation of a building in Jerusalem's City of David.[66]
6 – A 2,000-year-old marble head of Augustus has been discovered in Isernia, Italy.[67]
11
250 stone tombs have been discovered at Al-Hamidiyah cemetery, east of Sohag, dated back from Old Kingdom to the Ptolemaic dynasty.[68]
82 graves are discovered inside and outside kurgans in Istanbul, including symbols identified as runic alphabet from Romania's Vinča culture, dated back to between 3500 and 3000 B.C.[69]
12 – Archaeologists announce the discovery of a 350,000-year-old Acheulean site named An Nasim with 354 artefacts, hand axes and stone tools in the Ha'il region.[70][71]
19 – A large structure, possibly a warehouse dated back to the 3rd century B.C., is unearthed in Istanbul's Haydarpaşa, Asia Minor, in addition to pots and coins dating back to around 6 B.C.[73]
30 – Announcement of prehistoric animal carvings found in Kilmartin Glen, Scotland. Thought to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, they are the first of their kind to be found in Scotland.[74]
4 – A stele, which describes the military campaigns of Apries, is found in Ismailia, Egypt.[78]
10 – IAA archaeologists led by Alla Nagorsky announce discovery of a 1,000-year-old intact chicken egg from the Abbasid period, but it accidentally suffers a small basal crack in the laboratory.[79][80]
13 – A 1,800-year-old female statue is discovered in Metropolis, Asia Minor.[81]
18 – A 2,000-year-old leather shoe is found in a bog in Germany, alongside remains of a broken carriage axle and a bronze age road. The bog has helped preserve the shoe's structure, with its strap still intact.[83]
A 6,000 year-old island settlement is located at Lumbarda, off Croatian coast.[86]
29 – A 2,000 year-old Roman coffin with the remains of two people is excavated in Sydney Gardens, Bath, United Kingdom.[87]
July
12 – 100 Roman coins are unearthed along the banks of the Aa River in the southern Netherlands, dated back between 27 B.C. and A.D. 180.[88]
13
Two 2,500-year-old marble statues are discovered at the temple of Zeus Lepsynos, Euromus, Asia Minor.[89]
A 2,550-year-old inscription from last king of Babylon, Nabonidus, is discovered at Al Hait (Fadak), Hail Region, Saudi Arabia.[90][91]
14 – A cache of 87 silver coins is found in a field in the north of the Isle of Man, dated back between AD 1000 and 1035.[92]
19 – A Graeco-Egyptian military ship is discovered at Heracleion, dated back to the Ptolemaic era.[93] In addition, 2,400-year-old wicker baskets filled with fruit are also found at the same location.[94]
A heatwave results in lower water levels at Llyn Dulyn in north Wales, revealing the propeller of a US Douglas Dakota that crashed in the area on 11 November 1944.[96]
3 – Remains of a 10,000-year-old Mesolithic settlement near the Veletma River are announced by archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.[104]
7 – Discovery of human remains from sacrifices dating to the Silla Dynasty at Wolseong Palace's western wall in Gyeongju (South Korea) is announced.[105]
8
Remains of around 200 people have been discovered during the expansion of the royal burial chamber at Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.[106]
Discovery of remains of St. Mary's church which dates back to 1080 near Stoke Mandeville on the course of HS2 in England by LP-Archaeology led by Rachel Wood is announced.[107]
10 – Discovery of a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age coffin in a golf course pond in Lincolnshire, England, is announced by archaeologists. The coffin contained a well-preserved ax with a wooden handle and the burial of a high-ranking person.[111][112][113]
13 – Discovery of Iron Age treasure including golden Roman coins, luxurious jewelry, an ornament and medallions known as bracteates dating back to the 6th century BCE is announced by Vejle Museum of Art in Vindelev, in Denmark.[114][115]
18 – Archaeologists announce the discovery of ritualistic tools used in religious rituals at the ancient site of Tel al-Fara in the Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate in Egypt.[116][117]
24
Archaeologists announce the remains of eight 800-year-old bodies nearby the ancient town of Chilca in Peru.[118]
Discovery of more than 60 shaped clothmaking tools made from animal bones, as well as perforated seashells which are thought to date back 120,000 years at Contrebandiers Cave, in Morocco is announced.[119][120]
29 – Trove of 1,500-year-old gold coins from the Roman Empire is revealed by two amateur divers in Xàbia in Spain.[123]
30 – Archaeologists announce the discovery of a 40,000 year-old Neanderthal cave chamber at Vanguard Cave in Gibraltar.[124][125]
October
October – Portion of a shipwreck believed to be 200 years old found on a beach near Riga, Latvia.[126]
29 – Discovery of Roman sculptures (a man, a woman and the head of a child) beneath the abandoned medieval church of St Mary's near Stoke Mandeville on the course of HS2 in England is announced by archaeologists.[127]
November – Discovery of three Greek bronze swords from 3,200 years BC in good condition from Achaea in Greece is reported.[128]
December
24 – Archaeologists announce the discovery of 1600 year-old eight tombs along with animal and human remains and many pieces of jewelry in the Kurtulus district of Ordu in Turkey.[129][130]
28 – Discovery of unfinished Roman-era statue of a young man is announced at Agios Patapios in Veria, Greece. The headless marble statue is about three feet tall.[131][132]
Undated – Mausoleum of Emperor Wen of Han (d. 157 BCE) found in the Chinese city of Xi'an. In 2023 it is revealed that one of the animals ritually buried at the site was a giant panda, the first complete skeleton of a panda burial discovered.[133]
Events
January 20 – Beads made in the Republic of Venice discovered since the 1960s at sites in Alaska are initially dated to the pre-Columbian era,[134] subsequently assigned (probably) to the late-16th or early-17th century.[135]
February 9 – A conch from 18,000 years BP found in 1931 in Marsoulas Cave in the Haute-Garonne of France is demonstrated as having been adapted by Magdalenian people as a musical instrument.[136]
March 10 – The United States returns 280 pre-Hispanic archaeological pieces to Mexico. 270 had been stolen from various sites in Sonora and ten were from the Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition. The pieces had been recovered by immigration officials in 2012.[138]
April 30 – An Egyptian mummy, held in a Warsaw museum collection since 1826 and previously thought to be of a priest, has been revealed to be a pregnant woman, it is reported.[141]
May 12 – Analysis of excavations at Cerne Abbas Gianthill figure in England from 2020 indicates a date range for construction of 700–1100CE – the late Anglo-Saxon period, and much later than expected.[142]
c. June – Dating of bones of animals, possibly hunted and eaten, from Coxcatlan Cave Mexico to 30,000 years BP may lead to antedating the previously-accepted arrival date of humans in the Americas.[143]
July 13 – The University of Sheffield in England decides to close its "world-renowned archaeology department".[144]
July 15 – Analysis suggesting an early medieval burial excavated at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Hattula, in southern Finland in 1968 with ambiguous features of gender expression is of an individual with Klinefelter syndrome is published.[145]
November 11 – 131 Anglo-Saxon gold coins and four other artifacts discovered in west Norfolk over the period 1991–2020 by a metal detectorist are declared treasure trove, making this the largest hoard of its period found in England; the greater number comprises Merovingiantremissis.[151]
October – "Greta", a skull found in 1943 in the midlands of England and previously believed to be the oldest in Britain, dated to 14,000 years BP, is redated to the late 11th century CE.[152]
December – Dating of early presence of sheep on the Faroe Islands suggests that they were imported by British or Irish settlers by 500 AD - some 350 years before Vikings arrived.[154]