United Kingdom

Introduction

For many years, the public has become increasingly aware of historical and archaeological topics, a phenomenon to which large-scale and well-attended exhibitions, so-called ‘medievalmarkets’, the continual success of historical TV-documentaries, and a booming market in specialized books and magazines may attest. Living history formats on television or historical docu-soaps also attract millions of viewers (see, for example, Schwarzwaldhaus 1902, SWR 2002; Steinzeit– DasExperiment, SWR 2007).

Introduction

Animal mummies can be divided into four types: pets, mummified to accompany their owners into the Afterlife; victual, prepared and mummified food offerings for consumption in the Afterlife; cult, an individual selected based upon specific characteristics and markings to be an avatar for their prospective deity; and votive, where the whole population of certain species associated with a particular deity were classed as sacred and therefore worthy of mummification (Ikram and Iskander 2002; Ikram 2005; McKnight 2010).

Combining theoretical perspectives with two case studies carried out in 2008 with British students aged from 10-17 years old, this paper will explore how living history might contribute to the development of young people’s historical consciousness and help them to cope with the social and cultural differences which confront them when learning about the past. In particular, it will focus on the effectiveness of first- and third-person interpretation.