1st Edition
Researching the Archaeological Past through Imagined Narratives A Necessary Fiction
1. Historical fiction and archaeological interpretation: introduction
Daniël van Helden and Robert Witcher
2. The cornflakes of prehistory: fact, fiction and imagination in archaeology
Caroline Wickham-Jones
3. Voices from the silence
Margaret Elphinstone
4. Beyond archaeological narrative: imagined worlds of Neolithic Europe
Mark Patton
5. Imagined realities in academic and fictional accounts of the British Mesolithic
Donald Henson
6. Walking in someone else’s shoes: archaeology, empathy and fiction
Daniël van Helden and Robert Witcher
7. The multiverse of fiction: exploring interpretation through community archaeology
Francesco Ripanti and Giulia Osti
8. Entering undocumented pasts through playwriting
James G. Gibb
9. Encountering the past through slag and storytelling
Michael Given
10. Writing wonders: poetry as archaeological method?
Erin Kavanagh
11. Ambiguity and omission: creative mediation of the unknowable past
Giacomo Savani and Victoria Thompson
12. Spartacus: Blood and Sand (STARZ, 2010): a necessary fiction?
Fiona Hobden
13. Archaeology, historical fiction and Classical Reception Studies
Joanna Paul
14. Imagining the past through Film and Cultural Studies
Andrew B.R. Elliott
15. Archaeological narrative and humour in a post-truth world: the obligatory sum-up article
Adrian Praetzellis
Biography
Daniël van Helden is a doctoral student at the University of Leicester, UK. His research focuses on the theory, method and nature of archaeological thinking, specifically the concept of identity, as well as the potential of Fuzzy Set Theory and ontological database approaches for archaeology.
Robert Witcher is Associate Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, UK, and the editor of the world archaeology journal Antiquity. His research interests include landscape archaeology with a particular focus on the pre-Roman and Roman periods in Italy and the Mediterranean, where he has explored aspects of ancient settlement, agriculture and demography.
For both readers and writers of archaeological fiction, this volume discusses in depth the relationship between archaeological scientific writing and narratives based on archaeological discoveries. Between the opening chapter laying out the pitfalls as well as the value of historical fiction, and the concluding summary, essays by authors of archaeological tales provide first-hand perspectives. I recommend this book to both producers and consumers of archaeological fiction.
Sarah Milledge Nelson, Distinguished University Professor, University of Denver
