INTERPRETING FINDS IN CONTEXT: NICOPOLIS AND DICHIN REVISITED

It is no easy task to reconstruct human activity from layers or objects excavated on archaeological sites. The reconstruction of a stratigraphic sequence (integrating finds in the process) can change the interpretation of a deposit. Particular attention should be paid to the interplay between sites and finds. Too often the latter become the property of the specialist and acquire their importance as objects in themselves, not as essential tools for reconstructing a site’s history, a problem exacerbated by the usual relegation of finds to an attached report, divorced from any meaningful description of the archaeological context. However, the value of involving finds in the interpretation of archaeological sequences is illustrated by examples from two sites excavated by the author, Nicopolis and Dichin, both in Bulgaria.