History meets archaeology: the historical use of images. A survey

The relationship between contemporary historians, archaeologists and visual sources can still be called problematic, or even blurred . Because of the lack of a proper visual theory and methodology, the potential of iconographical sources still is rarely fully exploited. An interdisciplinary approach between history and archaeology, along with the expertise of other disciplines such as art history, anthropology, sociology, communication sciences and linguistics, is badly needed in order to get an accessible approach. At first glance, images seem a very obvious topic to study. We are indeed living in the 21st century, a time in which visual culture (internet, posters, advertisements, television) is dominant. Sources are abundantly produced, and the archives are growing increasingly interested in preserving audiovisual collections. However, as our two cases of recent historical and archaeological literature discussed in this introduction will show, the inclusion of visual material in past and current research is not self-evident.