2008 in archaeology

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The year 2008 in archaeology

Excavations

• March - The first excavation inside the sarsen circle since 1964 is started at Stonehenge.^[1]
• Discovery and excavation of the Savaria Mithraeum.

Publications

• Barry Cunliffe - Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000 (Yale University Press).
• Laurent Olivier - Le sombre abîme du temps: mémoire et archéologie (Seuil).
• Andrew Stewart - Classical Greece and the Birth of Western Art (Cambridge University Press).

Finds

• March 12–17 - Search for HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran: David Mearns leads a search team which finds the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, which both sank following a mutually destructive engagement off Western Australia in 1941.
• September
  • 'Venus of Hohle Fels', the oldest known example of figurative art.
  • A Viking Age ship, containing the remains of seven dead men, is found in Salme village, Saaremaa, Estonia. Several weapons, everyday items, gaming pieces and animal remains are also found.^[2]
  • Dornier Do 17 bomber WrkNr 1160 in Goodwin Sands in the Thames Estuary.^[3][4]
• October 9 - Serbian archaeologists find a copper axe in Prokuplje, Serbia believed to be 500–800 years older than the actual beginning of the Copper Age, suggesting that the human use of metal is older than previously believed.^[5][6][7]
• November - A Dutch amateur discovers 109 Celtic coins dating to the 1st century near Maastricht. Archaeologists report that the coins were produced by the Eburones. 39 of the coins were gold, marking this the first Celtic gold treasury found in the Netherlands.^[8]
• HMS London (1656) in the Thames Estuary.
• The 'West Yorkshire Hoard' of Anglo-Saxon gold ornaments is first discovered by a metal detectorist near Leeds in England.^[4]
• Carthaginian electrum coin of 300–250 BC found near Marsala.

Awards

• June - Archaeologist Larry Zimmerman receives the Peter Ucko Memorial Award at the 2008 World Archaeological Congress held in Dublin, Ireland.^[9]

References

1. Stonehenge - The Healing Stones, Day 1: Ground-breaking stuff Archived April 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine., by the BBC. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
2. Salme shipfind
3. "WWII German bomber to be recovered from Goodwin Sands". BBC News. 3 September 2010. Archived from the original on 8 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
4. National Heritage Memorial Fund (2012), Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2012, London: The Stationery Office, ISBN 9780102978193
5. serbianna (2008-10-09). "News Story Serbianna.com | Front Page". Serbianna.com. Archived from the original on 20 November 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
6. "Ancient axe find suggests Copper Age began earlier than believed". Thaindian.com. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
7. "Stone Pages Archaeo News: Ancient metal workshop found in Serbia". Stonepages.com. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
8. (Dutch) Keltische schat ontdekt met detector, by the Algemeen Dagblad. Retrieved 9 January 2009.
9. World Archaeological Congress honors Larry Zimmerman, by Indian Country Today. Retrieved 14 February 2009.