Session: #571

Content:

How can finding nothing be interesting for an archaeologist? This session will explore this apparently odd idea. The notion of ‘blank areas’ is well-recognised in archaeology (e.g. gaps in distribution maps) but there is often an unanswered question about them - are such blanks real, or are they the product of a lack of archaeological work or low archaeological visibility?

Now, though, large-scale development-led excavation and extensive geophysical survey are allowing us to say with confidence whether particular areas really are ‘blank’ or not - to say as much about what is NOT present (‘negative evidence’) as about what is there.

Such ‘negative patterns’ can take different forms. There may be a complete absence of archaeological material of any kind in any area. More frequently, though, it will be an absence of evidence for certain periods, or of certain kinds of site of feature which are commonly found in other areas.

Recognising the value of negative evidence opens up new interpretative possibilities. We may be seeing zones of forest, pasture or waste – resources that may been highly important economically or symbolically, but used in ways that leave no archaeological trace. Chronological patterns of presence and confirmed absence may document episodes of colonisation and abandonment in particular regions.

This session will seek to explore the relatively new concept of ‘confirmed negative’ archaeological evidence from a variety of perspectives, both theoretical and practical.

Session: #571

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