Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1879.

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• Major excavation at Babylon, conducted by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum. Work continues until 1882.
• Excavation of the group tomb of the Sacred Band of Thebes who fell in the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) in Boeotia by Panagiotis Stamatakis.^[1]
• Excavation of the stone circles of Junapani by J. H. Rivett-Carnac in Maharashtra.

• April 12 – Burial of a Thracian chieftain at Dalboki in central Bulgaria.^[2]
• Paintings of bison on the ceiling of the Cave of Altamira in Spain. c.12000 BC; accepted as authentic in 1902.
• Bronze Age weapons hoard at New Bradwell, Buckinghamshire, England.

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• May 10 – Establishment of the Archaeological Institute of America.^[3]
• Establishment of the Bureau of Ethnology.
• Percy Gardner is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge.

• March 29 – Alan Gardiner, English Egyptologist (died 1963).
• July 13 – Alan Wace, English Classical archaeologist (died 1957).
• September 13 – Harry Burton, English archaeological photographer, known for his photos of the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb (died 1940).
• Grace Mary Crowfoot, née Hood, English textile archaeologist (died 1957).

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2010)

• Cave art / Bison