1780 CE: First scientific archaeological excavations attributed to US President Thomas Jefferson.

1819 CE: C. J. Thomsen of the Danish National Museum first uses the Three-Age System of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age to organise its collection.

1822 CE: Champollion announces decipherment of hieroglyphic writing.

1828 CE: First excavations begun at Clava Cairns.

1828 CE - 1990 CE: Ongoing excavations at Clava Cairns.

1850 CE - 1913 CE: Excavations are ongoing at the Skara Brae site.

1860 CE: Frank Calvert, then Heinrich Schliemann beginning in 1871 CE, excavate at the site of ancient Troy.

1876 CE: Heinrich Schliemann begins excavating at Mycenae.

1900 CE - 1905 CE: Sir Arthur Evans excavates at Crete, discovering the palace at Knossos and naming the civilization "Minoan".

1902 CE - 1914 CE: The Ishtar Gate excavation is underway and lead by Robert Koldewey.

1913 CE: Skara Brae site is plundered by unknown parties.

1920 CE: English archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley excavates at Ur (in modern-day Iraq).

1922 CE: English archaeologist Howard Carter discovers the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

1927 CE: Professional excavation and preservation efforts begin at Skara Brae under V. G. Childe and J.W. Paterson.

1930 CE: The reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate is completed at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany.

1960 CE: Beginnings of processual archaeology, a scientific approach to questions and designing of models to suggest answers and test theories, in the US.

1970 CE: The Sweet Track found during peat excavations, Somerset, Britain.

1984 CE: Lindow Man discovered at Lindow Moss, a peat bog in Cheshire, England.