Building Archaeology and Fire The Materiality and Immateriality of a Disaster

Via several example cases, this article addresses the challenges and difficulties posed by the archaeological interpretation of fire traces in the analysis of old buildings, while questioning the disaster in its relationship to materiality. The usual perception of the disaster and its consequences can then be shifted, and the absence of its materiality on sites where events are fully attested makes it possible to question the scale and chronology of reconstruction programs.