Something describing article found in European excavation (7)
I believe the answer is:
epithet
'something describing' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'article found in european excavation' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article).
'found in' is an insertion indicator.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'excavation' becomes 'pit' (pit is a kind of excavation).
'e'+'pit'='epit'
'the' placed into 'epit' is 'EPITHET'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for epithet that I've seen before include "Descriptive word or phrase added to a name" , "Sobriquet" , "Phrase expressing some quality of a person or thing" , "qualifier" , "nickname" .)