Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1902.

• Leopoldo Batres initiates first major excavations at Monte Albán.
• E. A. Wallis Budge begins project at Meroë.
• Ludwig Borchardt leads Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft excavations at the Ancient Egyptian necropolis of Abusir.
• Georgios Sotiriadis excavates the tomb of the Macedonian warriors at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC).^[1]

• May 17 – Antikythera mechanism found by Valerios Stais^[2]
• Lansing Man found near Lansing, Kansas on the western bank of the Missouri River^[3]
• Etruscan chariot at Monteleone di Spoleto
• Tuxtla Statuette
• Böyük Dəhnə ancient artifacts
• Saimaluu Tash petroglyphs
• Tomb KV45 (Userhet) in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, discovered by Howard Carter working for Theodore M. Davis.
• Neolithic settlement of Magoula Balomenou near Chaeronea, discovered by Georgios Sotiriadis.^[1]

• Images of bison on the ceiling of the Cave of Altamira, Spain (discovered in 1879), accepted as authentic of c. 12000 BC.
• Restoration of Lion of Chaeronea begins.^[1]

• February 19 – Humfry Payne, English Classical archaeologist (d. 1936).
• May 10 – Ian Richmond, British archaeologist of Ancient Rome (d. 1965).
• August 25 – Clarence Hungerford Webb, American archaeologist (d. 1991).^[4]
• Arvid Andrén, Swedish classical art historian (d. 1999).

• March 2 – Kate Bradbury Griffith, English Egyptologist (b. 1854)
• October 7 – Henry Syer Cuming, antiquarian, collector and secretary of the British Archaeological Association (b. 1817)

• List of years in archaeology
• 1901 in archaeology
• 1903 in archaeology