History, Reception Studies and Ancient World.

A Critical Essay on the Studies of the Reception of the Ancient Near East.

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a historiographical assessment of the field of study known as the Reception of Antiquity, with emphasis on the reception of the ancient societies of “Mesopotamia” and Egypt. Its development is relatively recent, but has expanded considerably during, approximately, the last decade. These research studies have made it possible to investigate not only the context of significant archaeological discoveries, but also their circulation in society, the elaboration of imaginaries about past worlds and their link with the values, anxieties and expectations that they generated in the receiving audiences. In this way, the notion of “Antiquity” takes on a heuristic significance as no longer a delimited historical period determined by specialists, but as a concept that allows us to understand historical phenomena and relations that are opaque or elusive; and that also allows us to review the differences between research projects from different traditions.

The article explores certain general outlines in relation to historiographical reflection and disciplinary histories and also the emergence of reception studies of oriental antiquity, and concludes with certain questions and prognoses.