WHAT HAVEN’T YOU FOUND? BLANK AREAS AND THE VALUE OF NEGATIVE EVIDENCE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-11-06

Until quite recently, the idea that archaeologists might think it was interesting to find nothing would have seemed very strange. Now – as the range of papers submitted for this session shows – there is considerable interest in the linked archaeological concepts of ‘blank areas’ and ‘negative evidence’. This introductory paper aims to set the scene for the rest of the session. We will consider the following topics:
- The intellectual framework for consideration of blank areas: essentially, one which is rooted in landscape archaeology.
- The reasons for the recent upsurge of interest in this subject: especially, the advent of very large-scale development-led archaeology which is looking at whole landscapes, including the ‘empty spaces’ between individual monuments.
- The differing levels of confidence with which we can identify negative evidence (largely a function of the techniques being used)
and the varying forms it can take (absence of any evidence at all, absence of evidence for just certain periods, and so on).
- How awareness of the potential of negative evidence, and of the existence of blank areas, can be of value both for understanding past societies and for managing the archaeological resource.
We will also consider whether the new interest in negative evidence signals a wider shift in archaeology. Are we starting to recognise much more fully how our understanding of the past is shaped by the history, patterning and character of our archaeological observations? Recording the cases in which we don’t find anything is just as important as recording the things we do find.


Author(s): Thomas, Roger (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) - Darvill, Tim (Bournemouth University) - Lüth, Fritz (Deutsches Archaologisches Institut)