Record
What survives?
Start with the earliest traceable evidence and establish what the source actually says.
The Black Archive
From the original record.
Evidence-led history for readers and listeners: contested cases, myths and historical claims examined through surviving records, chronology and context.
Evidence before interpretation.
The Black Archive begins with the record rather than the legend. Contemporary documents, later accounts and modern retellings are separated so the reader can see what is supported, what is disputed and what remains unknown.
The work appears as long-form historical investigations, podcast episodes, source notes and material that can later feed books, articles and further research.
Conflict
Where do accounts diverge?
Contradictions are identified rather than silently resolved into a cleaner story.
Limit
What cannot be known?
Where the evidence runs out, uncertainty is part of the conclusion rather than a flaw to hide.
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Evidence-led essays on the website
Anne Boleyn and the Indictment That Contradicted the Record
A Tudor legal document, a precise date and a surviving record that creates an evidential problem.
Domesday Book: What the Record Leaves Out
How conquest, landholding and value became legible to royal administration after 1066.
Francisco de Orellana and the Amazon
The one-way voyage and contested account behind Rio Incognitum.
The Verification Desk
Evidence-led verification for the present day.
The same discipline used to test historical claims now also informs The Verification Desk, an independent publication with its own site, examining scams, fraud, AI-generated content, online authenticity and claims that can affect money, time or trust. It does not offer paid investigation or verification services.
Each investigation separates fact, inference and uncertainty and follows a structured path from claim to evidence, test, verdict and practical action.
Professional historical evidence work
The Black Archive is the public educational media brand. The Black Archive Research is the separate consultancy for publishers, documentary producers, museums, heritage organisations and professional clients who need historical claims tested privately before publication, broadcast, exhibition or professional reliance.
