Case 11 — Cross-examination

Arguing both sides of a real provenance dispute before you're allowed to reach a verdict

3 May 2027

Assignment 3 is due today. This is the most adversarial session of the course, on purpose: you were assigned a side of a genuine provenance dispute in week 10, and today you find out how it holds up against someone assigned the other one.

Before the session#

Submit Assignment 3 before the session starts.

In the session#

Paired cross-examinations: each of you spends five minutes attacking the other’s case, using nothing but questions. No new evidence is allowed — only pressure on the evidence already presented. The point isn’t to win; it’s to find out which parts of your case were actually load-bearing.

Afterwards#

Whatever survived the cross-examination is what you’re entitled to still believe. Anything that didn’t survive is worth revisiting before week 12, where the same discipline gets applied to a case you chose yourself, with nobody assigning you a side to defend.