http://blogs.discovery.com/news_archaeorama/2008/12/archaeoramas-ne.html

What will 2009 brings to archaeology...
There are three archaeologists who are likely to make the news in 2009:

ZAHI HAWASS. It's an easy guess, I know. Dr. Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, is working on a number of exciting projects.

He has announced an ambitious plans for DNA tests on hundreds of Egyptian mummies. In the next months we might know much more about Tutankhamun's family lineage, including two mummified fetuses believed to be his offspring.

2009 might also be the year of the discovery of Cleopatra's tomb.
A team of 12 archeologists and 70 excavators is working at the site of a temple, the Taposiris Magna, 28 miles west of Alexandria. So far, they have found a 400ft tunnel beneath the temple containing clues that the queen and her lover, the Roman general Mark Antony, may lie beneath.

If Hawass is right, this could be the greatest archeological discovery in Egypt since Tutankhamun’s tomb was uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922.

ZEMARYALAI TARZI. 2009 might be the year of the "Sleeping Buddha", a fabled 1,000-foot-long statue that survived the Taliban.

The giant reclining Buddha was described by a 7th-century Chinese monk but has never been found.

A few months ago, Dr.Tarzi found a 62-foot-long Buddha statue buried within the foundations of an ancient Buddhist temple in the Afghan valley where the Bamiyan Buddhas once stood.

Tarzi has found signs that indicate that the big lying Buddha is also buried there.
According to Najibullah Harar, head of Bamiyan’s information and culture department, Tarzi "has 70 percent hopes that he will find it."

PAOLA VIRGILI. 2009 might also be the year of the “Golden Villa”.
Dr. Virgili is carrying an exciting excavation project at Rome's Parco degli Acquedotti. So far the dig has revealed the ruins of a 2nd-century multi level villa, known as Villa delle Vignacce.

This was the magnificent home of Quintus Servilius Pudens, a wealthy friend of Emperor Hadrian.

Featuring the largest private bathhouse ever discovered, the house has begun to reveal spectacular ceilings covered with shimmering golden mosaics.
According to Virgili, it might be "the richest villa ever discovered."