Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1905.

• August – The Withypool Stone Circle (late Neolithic/early Bronze Age)) on Exmoor, England, is first fully surveyed by Harold St George Gray.
• September – The site of the Roman legionary works depot at Holt, Wales, is identified by fieldwalking.
• Theodore M. Davis officially granted exclusive concession to excavate in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.^[1]

• Major project of excavation and restoration at Teotihuacan begun under archeologist Leopoldo Batres.
• First excavations at Deir el-Medina by Ernesto Schiaparelli. Medical Ostraca of Deir el-Medina emerge.
• First scientific survey at Great Zimbabwe begun by David Randall-MacIver.
• George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, first excavates in Egypt.

• G. Baldwin Brown publishes The Care of Ancient Monuments: an account of the legislative and other measures adopted in European countries...
• Francis J. Haverfield publishes "The Romanization of Roman Britain" in Proceedings of the British Academy.
• J. R. Mortimer and Robert Mortimer publish their Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire.
• Thomas Gann publishes first descriptions of Maya site of Lubaantun.

• Winter 1904–5 – Lion Capital of Asoka, dated to about 250 BCE, discovered at Sarnath by F. O. Oertel.
• Naranjo discovered by Teoberto Maler.
• Caral, the oldest Andean city, discovered.
• Three Roman mosaic pavements are found at Harpham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
• Approximate date – Principia of the Roman fort at Bremetennacum (Ribchester), Lancashire, England, discovered by men working for Miss Greenall.

• Arthur Weigall appointed to replace Howard Carter as Chief Inspector of Antiquities for Upper Egypt.

• January 12 – James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist (died 1997).
• January 26 – Olga Tufnell, English archaeologist of the Near East (died 1985).
• May 11 – Terence Mitford, Japanese-born British archaeologist of the Near East (died 1978).
• October 31 – W. F. Grimes, Welsh archaeologist (died 1988).

• March 3 – Antonio Annetto Caruana, Maltese archaeologist (born 1830).