With subjects ranging from prehistoric artworks to excavation drawings, scientific illustrations, and artists impressions of ancient sites and contemporary landscapes, The Cultural Life of Images explores how pictures and representations of the past shape our perceptions and our expectations of that past. This volume is not concerned with the accuracy of pictures from the past or directly about the past itself, but is interested instead as to 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 in which history can be written.