The Ludification of the Archaeological Past – Opportunities and Threats

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the archaeologically created past, seen as a reservoir of pleasure. The topic is discussed in comparison with changes of the contemporary man’s approach to the past. The organising motif of my reflections is the category of pleasure and different ways of pursuing it by people, mainly by means of broadly understood play. I propose here two theses, namely: (1) in the contemporary world the past, being a point of reference for archaeological investigation, may constitute a source of pleasure or inspiration to search for pleasure; (2) the ways of presenting the past to a certain degree have been subjugated by the rules that have been reserved for the domains of entertainment and consumption. This paper will relate to: (1) the pleasure of exploring of the past; (2) the pleasure of re-enacting and performing the past, and (3) the pleasure of playing with the past during archaeological fêtes.