Ambiguity and omission: creative mediation of the unknowable past

The nexus between archaeology and imagination has received significant attention in the last two decades. Definitions of archaeological imagination range from a way of being ‘attuned’ to the world and, therefore, able to ‘read’ the past, for example, as a hunter reads the tracks of his or her prey, to a creative impulse at the heart of the discipline. Collaboration between artists (mostly visual artists) and archaeologists has a long and established tradition, but an understandable concern for the risks of an ‘imaginative’ archaeology has prevented full exploration of the possible overlap of these two roles. This chapter investigates whether imagination and art have a positive impact on archaeological research, building up from the collaborative experience of two scholars who are also creative artists. Through a project that combines creative writing, graphic art, material culture and landscape, and incorporates both creative work and reflective practice, the authors address the multifaceted challenges of representing and interpreting the past in and outside an academic context.