The historian can only point out those lines which were major enough to find reflection in our limited evidence, and must hope that future excavations will enrich our understanding.

During the Acropolis excavations in Athens, which terminated in 1888, many potsherds of the Mycenaean style were found ; but Olympia had yielded either none, or such as had not been recognized before being thrown away, and the temple site at Delphi produced nothing distinctively Aegean ( in dating ).

Two Aegean vases were found at Sidon in 1885, and many fragments of Aegean and especially Cypriot pottery have been found during recent excavations of sites in Philistia by the Palestine Fund.

The Museum continued to collect from all countries and all centuries: among the most spectacular additions were the 2600 BC Mesopotamian treasure from Ur, discovered during Leonard Woolley's 1922 – 34 excavations.

Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out in places as diverse as New Guinea, Madagascar, Romania, Guatemala and Indonesia and there were excavations in the Near East, Egypt, Sudan and the UK.

These were donated by Professor Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University in Texas, and comprise the entire collection of artefacts and environmental remains from his excavations between 1963 and 1997.

In the 20th century excavations were carried out at Carchemish, Turkey, between 1911 and 1914 and in 1920 by D. G. Hogarth and Leonard Woolley, the latter assisted by T. E. Lawrence.

The Mesopotamian collections were greatly augmented by excavations in southern Iraq after the First World War.

The first archaeological excavations of the 1880s were followed by systematic work by the British School at Athens and by Christos Tsountas, who investigated burial sites on several islands in 1898-1899 and coined the term " Cycladic civilization ".

The majority of crannog excavations were poorly conducted ( by modern standards ) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by early antiquarians, or were indeed purely accidental finds as lochs were drained during the improvements to increase usable farmland or pasture.

These excavations, led by archaeologist Leslie Alcock from 1966 – 70, were titled " Cadbury-Camelot ," and won much media attention, even being mentioned in the film of the musical Camelot.

Virgilio Canio Corbo, a Franciscan priest and archaeologist, who was present at the excavations, estimated from the archaeological evidence that the western retaining wall, of the temple itself, would have passed extremely close to the east side of the supposed tomb ; if the wall had been any further west any tomb would have been crushed under the weight of the wall ( which would be immediately above it ) if it had not already been destroyed when foundations for the wall were made.

Inscriptions found at Nippur, where extensive excavations were carried on during 1888 – 1900 by John P Peters and John Henry Haynes, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, show that Enlil was the head of an extensive pantheon.

Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site.

His excavations were condemned by later archaeologists as having destroyed the main layers of the real Troy.

Kenneth W. Harl in the Teaching Company's Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor lecture series sarcastically claims that Schliemann's excavations were carried out with such rough methods that he did to Troy what the Greeks couldn't do in their times, destroying and leveling down the entire city walls to the ground.

Works of embellishment were not confined to churches alone: excavations at the site of the Great Palace of Constantinople have yielded several high-quality mosaics dating from Justinian's reign, and a column topped by a bronze statue of Justinian on horseback and dressed in a military costume was erected in the Augustaeum in Constantinople in 543.

The term became common in archaeology at that time, as many important early excavations were made then, such as Mari and Ugarit.

After the discovery of Lindow Man, there were no further archaeological excavations at Lindow Moss until 1987.

Archaeological excavations were first carried out in 1897 by K. Kontopoulos for the Greek Archaeological Service, followed by K. Kourouniotes between 1902 and 1909.

Kourouniotes ’ s excavations of the altar and surrounding area ( the temenos ) were particularly informative ; he learned that the altar consisted of a raised mound of blackened earth as described by Pausanias.

Two inscriptions were uncovered in the excavations of Kouriouniotis that give the names of winning athletes in the various contests of the Lykaian Games that were held every four years between 320 and 304 BCE.

Exploratory excavations were undertaken here by the University of California expedition of 1989 – 90.

The purpose of trial excavations is to determine the extent and characteristics of archaeological potential in a given area before extensive excavation work is undertaken.

The earliest excavations were undertaken by Charles Warren in 1867 ; there have been numerous excavations since and several digs are currently underway.

The Papacy started organizing its own investigations with Pope Pius VII ; under Mussolini massive excavations were undertaken from 1938 to 1942.

The exception to this trend was the series of excavations undertaken by Mortimer Wheeler at Maiden Castle, Dorset in the 1930s.

Other excavations were undertaken in 1867 and 1886.

The first scientific archaeological excavations at the site were undertaken by David Randall-MacIver in 1905 – 1906.

From 1989 to 1991, new excavations were undertaken both in and around the national park.

It was however only in 1931 that large-scale scientific excavations were undertaken under the direction of Mexican archaeologist Alfonso Caso.

This interpretation later had to be abandoned when, in a series of excavations undertaken between 1961 and 1972, the true remains of the forum were firmly identified a block further east ( Insula XXII ).

Its present appearance is the result of restoration following excavations undertaken by Stuart Piggott and Richard Atkinson in 1962-1963.

No further excavations have been undertaken since the early 1950s and no radiocarbon dating has been attempted.

In 1920 excavations undertaken by J. P. Hall and Captain G. H.

More rigorous excavations at Magnesia were undertaken by the German Institute at Constantinople in the 1890s and by German and Turkish scholars since 1984.

Hoare ’ s huge financial investment in Cunnington ’ s work from 1804, and the consequent increase in the number of excavations undertaken, enabled the latter to excavate several hundred barrows across south Wiltshire.

In 1968, archaeological excavations were undertaken at the site of Tall Hisban ( alternatively spelled Tell Hesban ).

In 1894-1896 Dr Murray directed some excavations in Cyprus undertaken by means of a bequest of £ 2000 from Miss Emma Tournour Turner.

Since 1987, research teams from the museum have undertaken surveys and excavations in Antigua, the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The excavations at Ismant el-Kharab ( ancient Kellis ), Mut el-Kharab ( ancient Mothis ), Deir Abu Metta and Muzawwaqa are undertaken with the cooperation of Monash University, under the direction of Gillian E. Bowen.

In addition, excavations are undertaken at Amheida under the direction of Roger S. Bagnall.

Since then, several excavations have been undertaken.

The first scientific excavations were undertaken by a German expedition in 1906 under the supervision of R. Sundström, who worked in the northern sector of the site, exposing a large structure Sundström labelled the " palace of Adulis ", as well as recovering Axumite coinage ; their results were published in four volumes in 1913.

However, major full-scale excavations began on the site in 1962 and were undertaken by Professor George Eogan of University College Dublin.