Lack of evidence not infrequently means that we simply haven't found it yet, not that it doesn't exist.
Digit, you are correct. However, the scientific method does not allow for speculation and where some people have a problem (not you) is when they start building one speculation upon another to arrive at some sort of conclusion, whether accurate or not (re: Sitchin, Hancock, etc.). Some articles get really confusing when speculation is interlaced with known facts, thereby creating rhetorical crap that passes as scientific treatise. I enjoy sailing on the
GOOD SHIP SPECULATION as much as anyone else, but we still need to follow the scientific method in archaeological discussions to get from one point to the next ... otherwise it becomes pseudoscience and there's way too much of that in print for comfort.
I suppose we need to institute a caution that states:
WARNING: SPECULATION TO FOLLOW! when going off on a tangent.
