A volume of 26 contributions related to: The ancient world and modern perceptions: the invention of antiquity in modern times; Ancient economy, politic and society: evidences and interpretive models; Ancient representations: subjectivities and identities in interpreting gender, ethnicity, religion, literature and arts. The result is an innovative collection of chapters, from different standpoints, revealing how classics in general, and classical archaeology in particular, has reacted to the challenges of the recent past in forging a socially relevant study of the ancient world.