Reconstructing ancient worlds: reception studies, archaeological representation and the interpretation of ancient Egypt

Archaeological studies of the reception and representation of the past have proliferated in recent years, but theoretical and methodological work on this area is limited. The wider cultural engagement with prehistoric and ancient cultures is a long-established practice that has continued from antiquity to the present. During this time, there has been an exchange of ideas between those who have investigated ancient material remains and others who have represented aspects of the past in more creative contexts. Such representations of prehistoric and ancient worlds play an important part in generating interpretations of the past, yet we still know little about how they relate to the archaeological process of creating knowledge. In the following discussion, concepts from the field of reception studies are considered in relation to establishing a sound basis for undertaking research on archaeological representation. A case study on the visual reception of ancient Egypt is presented as a means of suggesting how research on archaeologically inspired representations of the past might be structured