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Archaeology timeline
Ancient sites, discoveries and the human past revealed.
39 moments in QuoAnno
Reading the timeline
A wider chronology
Archaeology studies the human past through material remains, landscapes and environmental evidence. Its own history includes spectacular finds, but also the gradual development of excavation, dating, conservation and interpretation methods.
The date of an archaeological milestone may describe a site's rediscovery, the beginning of an excavation or the recognition of an object's significance—not the age of the place or object itself. Modern archaeology also confronts collecting histories, ownership, repatriation and the rights of descendant communities.
What this category covers
Themes to follow
Sites and excavation
Fieldwork that records buildings, deposits and objects in their physical context.
Decipherment
Languages and inscriptions that reopened written evidence from earlier societies.
Scientific methods
Dating, imaging and environmental analysis that expand what remains can reveal.
Ethics and stewardship
Questions of ownership, conservation, repatriation and community authority.
Across the category
Timeline highlights
Systematic excavation begins at Herculaneum
Tunnelling into the buried town recovered statues, painted rooms and a library of carbonised papyrus scrolls sealed by the eruption.
Rosetta Stone is discovered
Its parallel texts were crucial to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Neanderthal 1 fossil is discovered
Earlier Neanderthal bones had been taken for modern skeletons; these became the type specimen when the species was named in 1864, the first extinct human species recognised as distinct from us.
The Antikythera mechanism is recovered
Its gear trains followed the Sun and Moon through the zodiac, and nothing of comparable complexity is known again until the astronomical clocks of the 14th century.
Tutankhamun’s tomb is discovered
The discovery transformed public fascination with ancient Egypt.
Excavations reveal Mohenjo-daro
Mohenjo-daro, in the Larkana District of Sindh, showed that the Indus valley held cities as old as those of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Terracotta Army is discovered near Xi’an
Thousands of life-size terracotta soldiers are associated with Qin Shi Huang’s tomb complex.
Ötzi the Iceman is discovered
Ötzi lived more than five thousand years ago.
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Further reading
These independent reference works and institutions provide broader context. QuoAnno links to them for further reading; the summaries on this page are original and are not copied from those sources.
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