1972 in archaeology

Excavations

• January-April - Dutch East India Company ship Vergulde Draeck wrecked in 1656 off Western Australia.
• Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia excavations at Maya site of Coba begin under direction of Carlos Navarrete.
• Tell Abu Hureyra, in Syria.
• Varna necropolis, in Bulgaria.
• Phrasikleia Kore funerary statue at Myrrhinous in Attica.
• Tombs with artefacts at Mawangdui in China.
• At Mesa Verde National Park, the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project is completed, with excavation of three cliff dwellings, including a survey of Wetherill Mesa and excavation of selected mesa-top sites.
• A geographer and an aerial photographer studying the Campeche region of the Yucatan peninsula prove that the Maya practiced intensive agriculture in raised, narrow, rectangular plots that they built above the low-lying, seasonally flooded land bordering along rivers.
• Excavations at Skara Brae under D. V. Clarke begin.
• First excavation of High Pasture Cave on Skye.

  Discoveries

• Ciudad Perdida, in Colombia.
• Riace bronzes are discovered in the Ionian Sea.
• Tamatsuzuka mural discovered in Asuka, central Nara, Japan.
• Vindolanda tablets discovered by Robin Birley.

  Publications

• March: The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration first published, under the auspices of the Council for Nautical Archaeology in the UK.
• Lewis R. Binford - An Archaeological Perspective. New York: Seminar Press.
• R. A. Buchanan - Industrial Archaeology in Britain. Harmondsworth: Penguin..
• Arthur Raistrick - Industrial Archaeology: an historical survey. London: Eyre Methuen..

  Miscellaneous

• March 30-September 30 - The Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition is first shown, at the British Museum in London.
• November 16 - Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO, paving the way for the adoption of World Heritage Sites.

  Deaths

• April 21 - Kenneth Murray, English-born archaeologist in Nigeria
• May 4 - Hetty Goldman, American archaeologist
• June 9 - Aage Roussell, Danish archaeologist
• October 1 - Louis Leakey, Kenyan paleoanthropologist, died in London
• Charles Green, English archaeologist