On ‘Incompossible’ Pasts and the Powers of the False

What happens to the worlds that almost, but didn’t, happen in archaeology? When we excavate sites or carry out analyses, potential worlds are always coming into existence: the moment radiocarbon dates get remodelled, and a site jumps through time or swells or contracts; the news that a body that was sexed as female turns out to be male; or when something bagged as pottery turns out to be stone. Our traditional archaeological stories of the past ignore the moments when these other worlds existed, cloaking them in shadow. They aren’t what archaeology is supposed to be interested in; they’re what didn’t happen. This paper shines a light on these ‘not-necessarily-true pasts’, worlds that Deleuze (drawing on Leibniz) would call ‘incompossible’. Looking at these worlds as places that existed, if only as potential, if only for a moment, opens up all sorts of questions for us as archaeologists. Not least, what if these worlds are more interesting, more challenging, or more important than others which actually did exist? Could we make space for a more nomadic wandering through worlds that didn’t exist, but might have? What would this mean for a different, and ever more creative, form of archaeology

Anthropological Studies and Insights · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · History · Japanese History and Culture

• ‘A Life Proper to Matter’

  Open Access•Oliver J T Harris, Christina Tsoraki et al.•Journal of Archaeological Method…•2026

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