ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that late antique archaeologists’ focus on space (particularly urban space) reflects the origins of late antique archaeology in challenges to paradigms of ‘decline’ as well as the broader disciplinary histories of classical archaeology. Using the examples of the excavations of a late Roman domus at Butrint (Albania) and the creation of a virtual reconstruction of the forum of Venta Icenorum (UK), I suggest that late antique archaeology needs to move away from questions that have grown out of these earlier paradigms and broaden the range of data that is investigated, recovered and considered. My aim is to recentre the experiences of a wider range of people (rather than largely prioritising the interests and experiences of high-status men). In doing so, we can utilise the power of archaeology to study the lived experience of people across society rather than focusing on mapping change in the areas that they inhabited.
