1790s in archaeology
The decade of the 1790s in archaeology involved some significant events.
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Explorations
- 1799: Napoleon in Egypt: French troops occupy Egyptian territory. Tomb KV20 in the Valley of the Kings is located.
Excavations
- 1796: The Roman fort, vicus, bridge abutments and associated remains of Hadrian's Wall are excavated at Chesters, in England.
- 1798: The first recorded excavations at Stonehenge are made by William Cunnington and Richard Colt Hoare.
- Formal excavations continue at Pompeii.
Finds
- 1790
- Pediment of the Roman temple at Bath, England, is discovered during work near the Roman Baths.[1]
- Townley Discobolus and Lansdowne Heracles are discovered at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, Italy.
- Bones presumed to be those of English poet John Milton (d. 1674) are disinterred during repairs to the church of St Giles-without-Cripplegate in London.[2]
- December 17 - The late post-classic Mexica Aztec sun stone is discovered during repairs to Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral.[3]
- 1796: Summer - Ribchester Hoard and helmet found in Lancashire, England.
- 1797: July 17 - The tomb of John, King of England (d. 1216), is rediscovered at Worcester Cathedral in front of the altar.[4]
- 1799: July 15 - At the town of Rosetta (Rashid), a harbor on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, French troops find the Rosetta Stone, inscribed with parallel texts in Greek, Egyptian demotic and hieroglyphs (translated in 1822 by Jean-François Champollion).
Publications
- 1793: James Douglas - Nenia Britannica, or, A Sepulchral History of Great Britain, from the earliest period to its general conversion to Christianity (published complete), the first account of the excavation of an Anglo-Saxon site (in Kent)[5] with artefacts systematically described and illustrated.[6]
- 1797: James Hutton, a Scotsman who has been called "the Father of Geology," publishes theories describing the earth as destroying and renewing itself in a never-ending cycle.
- 1799: Vice President of the United States Thomas Jefferson, writing in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 4, describes the bones of Megalonyx jeffersonii, an extinct ground sloth.
Other events
- 1797: January 3 - Three of the stones making up Stonehenge fall due to heavy frosts.
- 1798: December 10 - Some antiquities being shipped to England by Sir William Hamilton are lost in the wreck of HMS Colossus.
Births
- 1790: December 22 - Jean-François Champollion, French decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs (d. 1832)[7]
- 1793: January 22 - Caspar Reuvens, founder of Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities), first professor of archaeology (d. 1835)
- 1794: July 7 - Frances Stackhouse Acton, née Knight, English botanist, archaeologist, artist and writer (d. 1881)
- 1796: November 27 - John MacEnery, Irish-born priest and pioneer archaeologist (d. 1841)
- 1797: October 5 - John Gardiner Wilkinson, English traveller, writer and pioneer Egyptologist (d. 1875)[8]
- 1799: December 12 (23) - Karl Bryullov, Russian painter of The Last Day of Pompeii (d. 1852)
Deaths
- 1795: April 30 - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy French writer and numismatist (b. 1716)[9]
References
- "Key objects of the collection". Bath: Roman Baths. 24 October 2014. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
- Read, Allen Walker (1930). "The Disinterment of Milton's Remains". Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 45 (4): 1050–68. doi:10.2307/457826. JSTOR 457826.
- History Today. 68 (12): 23. December 2018.
{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - "Account about opening King John's tomb". The British Library. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
- Webster, Leslie (1986). "Anglo-Saxon England AD 400–1100". In Longworth, Ian; Cherry, John (eds.). Archaeology in Britain since 1945. London: British Museum. p. 121. ISBN 0-7141-2035-9.
- Royal Academy of Arts (2007). Making History: Antiquarians in Britain 1707-2007. London. p. 99.
- "BBC - History - Jean-François Champollion". BBC. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
- Bierbrier, Morris L. (2008). Historical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. Scarecrow Press. p. 257. ISBN 9780810862500.
- "Jean-Jacques Barthelemy - French archaeologist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
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