From ruins to reels An archaeological approach to imagination through cinema

This dissertation examines the intersection of archaeology and imagination by exploring film sets as materialised simulacra, focusing on how cinema constructs imaginary worlds and creates unreferenced pasts through time, place, and matter. The thesis is structured like a screenplay, examining how archaeology can engage with fictional spaces by analysing film sets as "places of imagination" and props as "objects of imagination." Through a hybrid methodology and an archaeological excavation of the "Golden City" abandoned film set, it analyses how material traces and memories construct narratives of imagined realities (and pasts). Ultimately, it investigates how cinema's material remains can deepen our understanding of archaeological narratives and practices, considering whether archaeology itself functions as a simulacrum.