The year 2012 in archaeology involved some significant events.

• January - Discovery of a first-century farmhouse on the building site of the new stadium in the south of Marseille.^[1]

• June 6 - Excavators from Museum of London Archaeology announce that they have uncovered the remains of the Elizabethan Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch.^[2][3]
• August 24 - Philippa Langley in association with the Richard III Society, and Leicester City Council, engage University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), and announce that they have joined forces to begin a search for the site of Greyfriars, Leicester, burial place of King Richard III of England.^[4][5] On September 5 the excavators announce that they have identified the church.^[6][7] and on September 12 it is announced that a skeleton discovered during the search could have been that of Richard III,^[8] a supposition confirmed in 2013.^[9]
• October - Remains of substantial Mesolithic buildings are identified in Britain at Echline in Scotland,^[10] Lunt Meadows at Sefton, Merseyside^[11] and from new investigations at Starr Carr in North Yorkshire.^[12]
• December - Archaeologists complete excavation of a 900-seat Athenaeum from the time of the Emperor Hadrian in Rome discovered during work on a Metro line at Piazza Venezia.^[13]
• Excavation of working-class back-to-back houses from the Industrial Revolution period at Chapel Street in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.^[14]
• Excavations at Holt Castle in Wales begin.

• January
  • The use of maize in Peru as early as 4700 BCE is confirmed.^[15]
  • Evidence for early Mayan tobacco use is published.^[16]
  • Discovery that the Vikings grew barley in Greenland.^[17]
• February 17 - Alabaster colossus of pharaoh Amenhotep III is discovered.^[18]
• March - Discovery of an inscribed doorjamb at Karnak giving the hitherto unknown titulary of pharaoh Senakhtenre Ahmose.^[19]
• March - A 7th century grave near Cambridge in England provides an early example of the transition from pagan Anglo-Saxon to Christian burial practices.^[20]
• March 30 - In Georgia, archeologists report unearthing jars containing what they believe to be the world's oldest honey.^[21]
• May - The oldest Mayan astronomical calendar discovered so far, from the 9th century, is reported from Xultun.^[22]
• May 9 - Archaeologists announce discovery on The Burren in Ireland of evidence of settlement from 6000 BCE.^[23]
• May 19 - The National Trust for Scotland announce that the first cursing stone to be found in the country, dated to circa 800, has been discovered on Canna.^[24]
• May 22 - The Bedale Hoard, a hoard of forty-eight silver and gold items dating from the late 9th to early 10th century AD is discovered in a field near Bedale, North Yorkshire by metal detectorists.^[25]
• June 25 - In the Channel Island of Jersey, the discovery of the Grouville Hoard of an estimated 30,000 – 50,000 Roman and Celtic coins by metal detectorists is announced.^[26]
• July
  • Discovery of 15th century underwear at Lengberg Castle in Austria is confirmed.^[27][28]
  • The wreck of the polar expedition ship Terra Nova is discovered off Greenland by the Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor.^[29][30]
• September - A beeswax filling is discovered in the cracked tooth of a Neolithic man in Slovenia.^[31]
• October - In Jersey, the Trinity Hoard of Bronze Age tools and weapons is discovered.^[32]
• November - 2,400-year-old golden treasure near the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari, Bulgaria.^[33]
• December - Discovery near Canterbury, England, of a 1st-century Iron Age bronze helmet containing a bag of cremated human remains is announced.^[34][35]
• Undated
  • Devunigutta Temple in India first reported.^[36]
  • Discovery of a rock inscription confirming the existence of Iry-Hor, the earliest ruler of Egypt known by name.^[37]
  • Cypriot pottery vessels excavated at Yehud in the land of Canaan (modern-day Israel) subsequently discovered to contain the earliest surviving evidence of opium for use as a narcotic.^[38]

• February - Completion of whole genome sequencing on Ötzi (d. c.3255 BCE) identifies his paternal DNA with Sardinia.^[39]
• July - Mausoleums and a mosque in Timbuktu (Mali) are deliberately attacked by rebels, a war crime for which Ahmad al-Mahdi in 2016 pleads guilty before the International Criminal Court.^[40]
• August - The Krak des Chevaliers is shelled by the Syrian Army.^[41]
• November - Study from the Kathu Archaeological Complex in South Africa suggests that hominids, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, may have developed the technology of hafted stone-tipped spears about 500,000 years ago.^[42][43]

• July 19: Brian Dobson, British archaeologist notable for work on Hadrian's Wall and the Roman Army (b. 1931)^[44]
• July 29: James Mellaart, British archaeologist. (b. 1925)^[45]

• List of years in archaeology