Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1897.

• Rudolf Ernst Brünnow and Alfred von Domaszewski begin a two-year expedition to the Arabian Peninsula, including Petra.

• Excavation of Glastonbury Lake Village by Arthur Bulleid and Harold St George Gray begins.
• Maud Cunnington carries out her first excavations in the Devizes area of England.
• Excavation of the first Mycenaean chamber tombs in Kolonaki at Thebes, Greece, by Dimitrios Filios.^[1]
• Excavation of Nekhen in Egypt begins (continues to 1899).
• Excavation of Susa in Iran by a French expedition led by Jacques de Morgan begins (continues to 1911).

• May - Yde Girl, a bog body, is discovered in the village of Yde, The Netherlands.^[2]
• August 4 - The "Lady of Elche" Iberian sculpture (4th century BCE) is found at L'Alcúdia near Elche in Spain.
• Coligny calendar.
• Alekanovo inscription.
• Silver and gold tubes of the Maykop culture from a burial mound in Armenia, interpreted in 2022 as drinking straws for communal beer consumption.^[3]

• February 18 - Conclusion of the Benin Expedition of 1897, leading to the Benin Bronzes being carried off to London.

• William Copeland Borlase - The Dolmens of Ireland: their distribution, structural characteristics, and affinities in other countries, together with the folklore attaching to them; supplemented by considerations on the anthropology, ethnology, and traditions of the Irish people (3 vols, London).

• June 1 - Yang Zhongjian, father of Chinese vertebrate paleontology (d. 1979).
• August 21 - Victor Erle Nash-Williams, Welsh archaeologist (d. 1955).^[4]
• October 30 - Einar Gjerstad, Swedish archaeologist of the ancient Mediterranean (d. 1988).

• May 5 - James Theodore Bent, English explorer, archaeologist and author (b. 1852).
• May 21 - Augustus Wollaston Franks, English antiquarian (b. 1826).