2003 in archaeology

Start of Stonehenge Riverside Project (continues to 2008). Identification of Neolithic sources of jadeite on Monte Viso and Monte Beigua in Italy.

Start of Ness of Brodgar excavation in Scotland. Start of Dungarvan Valley Caves Project in Ireland. Full excavation of High Pasture Cave on Skye.

April First British cave art discovered at Creswell Crags. June Staffordshire Moorlands Pan found in England, a Celtic vessel with inscriptions relating to Hadrian's Wall. July Russian monitor Russalka (1867) located by sonar in the Gulf of Finland. August Tse whit zen village discovered on the Washington coast during construction work. Autumn–December Prittlewell royal Anglo Saxon burial near Southend on Sea in England, the grave, dated to about 580 AD, of a high status man, perhaps Saexa (brother to Sæberht of Essex), buried with objects including Christian symbols. Boscombe Bowmen's shared grave of around 2300 BCE discovered in southern England. Cirebon shipwreck (early 10th century) in the Java Sea, containing a large amount of Chinese Yue ware and important evidence of the Maritime Silk Road. Dutch built fluyt Swan located in Baltic Sea. Roman base silver coin hoard at Chalgrove in Oxfordshire, England, including one of Domitianus, briefly ruler of the Gallic Empire. Iron Age gold coin hoard at Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire, England.

Wayne D. Cocroft and Roger J. C. Thomas Cold War: building for nuclear confrontation 1946 1989. Adrienne Mayor Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs: biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world. Colin Renfrew Figuring It Out: What are we? Where do we come from? – The parallel visions of artists and archaeologists. Ruth M. Van Dyke and Susan E. Alcock (ed.) Archaeologies of Memory.

July 17 The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage adopts the Nizhny Tagil Charter for the Industrial Heritage. November 10 Official opening of the Department of First World War Archaeology in the Institute for the Archaeological Heritage of the Flemish Community (IAP) at Ypres. December 26 The 2003 Bam earthquake devastates the Arg e Bam in Iran. Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory group formed. The fake "ancient Egyptian" Amarna Princess statue, actually made by Shaun Greenhalgh, is sold to Bolton Museum in England.

January 22 Mary Chubb, English archaeologist and author; worked in Egypt and the Near East (b. 1903)
July 30 Mendel L. Peterson, American underwater archaeologist (b. 1918)