Puneet Varma (Editor)

1790s in archaeology

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The decade of the 1790s in archaeology involved some significant events.

Contents

Explorations

  • 1799: Napoleon in Egypt: French troops occupy Egyptian territory.

    • 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.
  • December 14 - The late post-classic Mexica Aztec calendar stone is discovered during repairs to Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral.
  • 1796: Summer - Ribchester Hoard and helmet found in Lancashire, England.
  • 1797: The tomb of John, King of England, is rediscovered at Worcester Cathedral in front of the altar.
  • 1799: At the town of Rosetta (Rashid), a harbor on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, French troops find the Rosetta Stone, inscribed with Greek/demotic/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) with artefacts systematically described and illustrated.
  • 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 23 - Jean-François Champollion (d. 1832), French decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs
  • 1793: January 22 - Caspar Reuvens (d. 1835), founder of Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities), first professor of archaeology
  • 1794: July 7 - Frances Stackhouse Acton, née Knight (d. 1881), English botanist, archaeologist, artist and writer
  • 1796: November 27 - John MacEnery (d. 1841), Irish-born priest and pioneer archaeologist
  • 1797: October 5 - John Gardiner Wilkinson (d. 1875), English traveller, writer and pioneer Egyptologist
  • 1799: December 12 (23) - Karl Bryullov (d. 1852), Russian painter of The Last Day of Pompeii

    • Deaths

  • 1795: date unknown - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy (b. 1716).

    • References

    1790s in archaeology Wikipedia
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