Law and Archaeology: Modified Wigmorean Analysis Terence Anderson and William Twining
This paper considers the potential application to some archeological enquiries of a modified form of John Henry Wigmore’s “chart method” of analyzing evidence. The method is used to marshall a complex mixed mass of evidence into a coherent argument for both sides in respect of a hypothesis or ultimate probandum and visually depicting all of the relations between the propositions in that argument. Originally developed in relation to complex cases in law, it has been applied in a number of fields, including intelligence analysis, police investigation and contested historical events. This paper introduces the method and illustrates it in relation to the thesis that cuneiform survived beyond the second or first century BC, as had been widely supposed.
