1881 in archaeology

Explorations

• Alfred Maudslay begins his thorough examination of Quiriguá.

  Excavations

• Timgad, Algeria, is excavated.
• The excavations at Olympia, Greece which began in 1875 and were led by Ernst Curtius end.
• Mount Nemrut, Turkey, is excavated by German engineer Karl Sester.
• Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico is investigated by Swiss-born American archaeologist Adolph Bandelier.
• Pyramid of Unas in Egypt is investigated by French archaeologist Gaston Maspero.

  Finds

• March - Augustus Pitt Rivers finds palaeolithic flints in concreted gravels of the Nile terraces near Thebes.
• "Official" discovery of collective tomb DB320 at Deir el-Bahari in Egypt.
• Capt. H. L. Wells, RE, finds Qadamgah in Fars Province, Persia.
• The birch bark Bakhshali manuscript, incorporating perhaps the earliest known use of mathematical zero, is unearthed near Bakhshali in British India.

  Publications

• John Evans - The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland.
• H. A. Fletcher - "The archaeology of the west Cumberland iron trade". Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Archaeological Society 5:5-21.
• Possible earliest use of the term "Industrial archaeology" in the English language.

  Other events

• February 22 - 'Cleopatra's Needle' erected in Central Park, New York.

  Births

• December 19 - Hetty Goldman, American archaeologist

  Deaths

• January 24 - Frances Stackhouse Acton, English botanist, archaeologist, artist and writer
• June 21 - Ferdinand Keller, Swiss archaeologist