Pictures are often admired for their aesthetic merits but they are rarely treated as if they had as much to offer as the written word. They are often overlooked as objects of analysis themselves, and tend to be seen simply as adjuncts to the text. Images, however, are not passive, and have a direct impact that engages attention in ways independent of any specific text. Advertising, entertainment and propaganda have realised the extent of this power to shape ideas, but the scientific community has hitherto neglected the ways in which visual material conditions the ways in which we think.
With subjects including prehistoric artworks, excavation illustrations, artists' impressions of ancient sites and peoples and contemporary landscapes, photographs and drawings, this study explores how pictures shape our perceptions and our expectations of the past.
This volume is not concerned with the accuracy of pictures from the past or directly about the past itself, but is interested instead in why certain subjects are selected, why they are depicted the way they are, and what effects such images have on our idea of the past. This collection constitutes a ground-breaking study in historiography which radically reassesses the ways that history can be written.
List of illustrations x(3) List of tables xiii(1) List of contributors xiv(1) General editors preface xv(2) Acknowledgements xvii Introduction: the cultural life of images 1(10) Brain Leigh Molyneaux Pictures and words 1(4) The situation of production 5(1) The inertia of pictures 5(2) Seeing and reading 7(1) References 8(3) 1 Art, Landscape, and the past: an artists view 11(11) Carolyn Trant References 21(1) 2 Drawing inferences: visual reconstructions in theory and practice 22(27) Simon James Introduction 22(1) `But is it Art? Aims, aesthetics, and mechanics 23(1) Participants and interactions 24(1) Academic attitudes 24(1) Rules and guidelines 25(1) Aims, processes, and limitations 26(1) Reconstruction as an archaeological research tool 27(6) Reconstructing the Roman saddle 27(2) Reconstructing complex timber buildings. Cowderys Down 29(4) Reconstructing social relations 33(1) Reconstruction as a medium of communication with the public(s) 34(5) Iron Age nobles. A reconstruction for the general public 35(4) Producing a drawing 39(1) Boxgrove 40(6) Building on experience. Vices into virtues 46(1) Acknowledgements 47(1) References 47(2) 3 Things, and things like them 49(13) Alan Costall The place of pictures in perceptual theory 50(12) The window theory of pictures 50(1) The information theory of pictures 51(3) The evidence for resemblance theory 54(2) Doing things with pictures 56(1) Childrens (mis)understandings of pictures 56(2) The social life of pictures 58(1) References 59(3) 4 `To see is to have seen: craft traditions in British field archaeology 62(11) Richard Bradley On learning to see 62(2) Craft traditions in field archaeology 64(4) Styles of illustration 68(2) Conclusion: To see is to have seen 70(1) Note 71(1) References 71(2) 5 Photography and archeology 73(35) Michael Shanks Introduction 73(1) The photograph as record and witness 74(2) Photographs as notes 76(2) Genres of photography 78(1) Realism and naturalism 78(2) The rhetoric of the image 80(1) The rhetoric of discourse 81(2) Text and the photograph 83(1) Photowork and the working of illustrative discourse 83(2) 10 The power of the picture: the image of the ancient Gaul 213(17) Timothy Champion Introduction 213(17) Representation of the barbarian Gauls 214(2) Guizots Histoire and its images 216(7) The projection of the image 223(3) The legacy 226(3) References 229(1) 11 Focusing on the past: visual and textual images of Aboriginal Australia in museums 230(19) Lynette Russell Introduction 230(1) Inventing the other 231(1) Museum texts and displays, past and present 233(7) An Aboriginal-designed museum exhibition 240(3) Corporate symbolism: Aborigines represent themselves 243(2) Conclusion 245(1) Acknowledgements 246(1) References 246(3) 12 The painter and prehistoric people: a hypothesis on canvas 249(14) Wiktor Stoczkowski Notes 262(1) References 262(1) Index 263(1) Further workings of a photograph 85(1) Temporality of the photograph 86(1) Actuality 86(3) Melancholy and ruin 89(2) New technologies 91(1) Hypermedia 92(7) Experience and the photograph 99(1) Varieties of experience: towards embodiment 100(1) Visualization as a research too and archaeologies of the ineffable 100(1) The potential of photography 101(1) A radical imaging/writing 102(1) Notes 102(2) References 104(4) 6 Representation and reality in private tombs of the late eighteenth dynasty, Egypt: an approach to the study of the shape of meaning 108(22) Brain Leigh Molyneaux Representation and reality 108(6) The Akhenaten problem 114(2) The social landscape of the representations 116(1) Visibility and compositional devices 117(4) Metric analysis 121(1) The analysis of height relations 122(3) Conclusion 125(2) References 127(3) 7 Some Greek images of others 130(29) Brian A. Sparkes Introduction 130(2) The dynamic text 132(1) Images of others 133(4) The others 137(17) The Skythians 137(2) The Thracians 139(3) The Persians 142(2) The Africans (Ethiopians and Egyptians) 144(10) Conclusion 154(1) References 155(4) 8 The art and archaeology of Custers last battle 159(25) Richard A. Fox, Jr Introduction 159(1) Objectives 160(1) Custers last stand 161(2) Plains Indian art 163(8) Indian drawings, archaeology, and combat behaviour 171(8) Conclusions 179(2) Acknowledgements 181(1) Notes 182(1) References 182(2) 9 Revolutionary images: the iconic vocabulary for representing human antiquity 184(29) Stephanie Moser Clive Gamble Introduction 184(1) Archaeology and visual representation 185(1) The visual reconstruction 186(4) The icons of human antiquity 188(2) Three windows onto the past 190(15) The Romantic tradition 192(3) The archaeological tradition 194(10) The comic tradition 204(1) Locating the origins of archaeologys iconic vocabulary 205(4) Ancestors and cultural origins 206(1) Apes, savages, and evolution 207(1) Landscape 208(1) Authenticity and the demise of the Romantic vision of the past 209(1) Acknowledgements 210(1) Note 210(1) References 211(2) List of illustrations x(3) List of tables xiii(1) List of contributors xiv(1) General editors preface xv(2) Acknowledgements xvii Introduction: the cultural life of images 1(10) Brain Leigh Molyneaux Pictures and words 1(4) The situation of production 5(1) The inertia of pictures 5(2) Seeing and reading 7(1) References 8(3) 1 Art, Landscape, and the past: an artists view 11(11) Carolyn Trant References 21(1) 2 Drawing inferences: visual reconstructions in theory and practice 22(27) Simon James Introduction 22(1) `But is it Art? Aims, aesthetics, and mechanics 23(1) Participants and interactions 24(1) Academic attitudes 24(1) Rules and guidelines 25(1) Aims, processes, and limitations 26(1) Reconstruction as an archaeological research tool 27(6) Reconstructing the Roman saddle 27(2) Reconstructing complex timber buildings. Cowderys Down 29(4) Reconstructing social relations 33(1) Reconstruction as a medium of communication with the public(s) 34(5) Iron Age nobles. A reconstruction for the general public 35(4) Producing a drawing 39(1) Boxgrove 40(6) Building on experience. Vices into virtues 46(1) Acknowledgements 47(1) References 47(2) 3 Things, and things like them 49(13) Alan Costall The place of pictures in perceptual theory 50(12) The window theory of pictures 50(1) The information theory of pictures 51(3) The evidence for resemblance theory 54(2) Doing things with pictures 56(1) Childrens (mis)understandings of pictures 56(2) The social life of pictures 58(1) References 59(3) 4 `To see is to have seen: craft traditions in British field archaeology 62(11) Richard Bradley On learning to see 62(2) Craft traditions in field archaeology 64(4) Styles of illustration 68(2) Conclusion: To see is to have seen 70(1) Note 71(1) References 71(2) 5 Photography and archeology 73(35) Michael Shanks Introduction 73(1) The photograph as record and witness 74(2) Photographs as notes 76(2) Genres of photography 78(1) Realism and naturalism 78(2) The rhetoric of the image 80(1) The rhetoric of discourse 81(2) Text and the photograph 83(1) Photowork and the working of illustrative discourse 83(2) 10 The power of the picture: the image of the ancient Gaul 213(17) Timothy Champion Introduction 213(17) Representation of the barbarian Gauls 214(2) Guizots Histoire and its images 216(7) The projection of the image 223(3) The legacy 226(3) References 229(1) 11 Focusing on the past: visual and textual images of Aboriginal Australia in museums 230(19) Lynette Russell Introduction 230(1) Inventing the other 231(1) Museum texts and displays, past and present 233(7) An Aboriginal-designed museum exhibition 240(3) Corporate symbolism: Aborigines represent themselves 243(2) Conclusion 245(1) Acknowledgements 246(1) References 246(3) 12 The painter and prehistoric people: a hypothesis on canvas 249(14) Wiktor Stoczkowski Notes 262(1) References 262(1) Index 263(1)
Brian Leigh Molyneaux is Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the University of South Dakota.
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