Like all academic disciplines the study of archaeology has been transformed over the past three decades by new theoretical perspectives often drawn from literary theory and social anthropology (see Greene 2002 for a clear introduction to archaeological method and theory). Any study of archaeology may be divided into a number of categories depending on the types of sites and monuments, the techniques which have been used for their investigation, the range of differing artefacts and other material which is recovered from survey or excavation. Furthermore we need to consider the various approaches to the physical evidence and the differing understandings and interpretations which can be derived therefrom. The archaeology of the Byzantine world is a historical archaeology, set in a chronological framework, informed by texts. A simple way of using this evidence is to allow the archaeology to illustrate the historical narrative derived from written sources; an example of this is the way that in the past biblical archaeology was seen to demonstrate and support the biblical texts as fact (Silberman, in Meskell 1998:175-88). Archaeologists and textual historians have come to recognize that the relation between text and material culture is altogether more complex and potentially more enriching for an understanding of the past. Both sides have narratives, one derived from text and memory, the other from the physical narratives of structures and artefacts. To understand the relationship of these is to engage in an equal dialogue, not to prefer one over the other.
World History
