IL Archive The name that crossed millennia
EN

Independent research archive Texts · Ideas · Civilizations

Menu

Entity · Concept

Negative evidence

A reference page linking a name, group, or concept to the materials that discuss it.

Failure to find an expected trace can test a hypothesis when preservation and investigation make discovery expectable; not every absence is evidence.

Modern explanatory diagram: an absent mark in an examined area differs from an unexamined area. The grid and magnifier illustrate investigation, not an actual excavation plan
Modern explanatory diagram: an absent mark in an examined area differs from an unexamined area. The grid and magnifier illustrate investigation, not an actual excavation planIL Archive · CC BYLicense

Text

Research distinguishes an unexamined place from one appropriately investigated without the expected remains. Thomas and Darvill discuss negative-result datasets from large-scale archaeology.[11]

Inferential strength depends on sampling, preservation and the expectation itself. Absence of a divine image is not absence of every idea of that deity; it may test a narrower expectation concerning visual representation.

References and notes

  1. Roger Thomas & Timothy Darvill (2022). What haven’t we found? Recognising the value of negative evidence in archaeology. Antiquity 96(388), 955–967. Abstract; negative results in large-scale British archaeology. The religious-image example is the archive’s methodological application, not a finding of that paper. Return to the text ↑

Research history

Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.

  1. Edition 2 · 10 October 2026 · editor:aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

Suggest a correction · Suggest a source for this record

Cite this record

IL Archive, «Negative evidence», Edition 2, https://ilarchive.com/en/entities/negative-evidence