Abstract
Liakos and Bilalis use “Jurassic Park” as a metaphor to describe historical culture. Historical culture, like the theme park, is full of history and memory creatures becoming alive and autonomous, even uncontrollable, fighting each other and scaring the human visitor. Humans recruit them for their power games, assign them roles and often borrow their voices. The past acquires a second hybrid life which contaminates its first life. Humans can hardly imagine these creatures in their original setting, outside their role in the park. Dead memories or facts suddenly acquire new meaning and vitality, enter the public sphere, become part of political discourse, and create strong sentiments. It’s difficult, often impossible, to avoid or escape them. Given these circumstances the authors wonder what historians do in this park: how can they deal with historical culture?