Upper Paleolithic Soundscapes and the Emotional Resonance of Nighttime (original) (raw)
Introduction to the Archaeology of the Night
Archaeology of the Night, 2018
As twilight settled in the ancient world, a host of activities ensued, some of which were significantly different from what people did during the daytime. Some artifacts, features, and buildings associated with these activities were particular to the dark, while other material culture was transformed in meaning as the sun set. Night offers refuge from the heat and demands of the day but can also bring with it nightmares, night raids, and other dark doings. Sleep, sex, socializing, stargazing, storytelling, ceremony, work and play—so much of our economic, social and ritual lives, take place at night and yet relatively little archaeological research has been undertaken specifically on nightly quotidian practices. Does darkness obscure these activities for the archaeologist or is it that we need to learn to see them? This volume examines the archaeology, mythology, iconography, and epigraphy of “strange” nocturnal doings and in the process will challenge our “familiar” reconstructions of ancient life. Topics include the liminal periods of dusk and dawn, archaeological evidence for the diversity of sleep (where one sleeps, in what one sleeps, and with whom one sleeps), the practical and psychological effects of artificial light, and the origins of the ‘night shift.’ Contributors to this volume explore the concept of the nighttime within a comparative anthropological framework to provide the broadest possible interpretation of individual case studies drawn from a wide range of ancient and prehistoric cultures from diverse areas of the globe.
Life After Dark in the Cities of the Ancient World
ICNS Conference Proceedings, 2020
As darkness cascaded across the city sky, some workers trudged home for the day for rest and relaxation while others were just commencing their shifts. Dusk signalled the start of urban activities unlike those conducted during the day. Ancient urban dwellers repeated this rhythm many times over, and transformed their nocturnal environment through the artifacts, features, and buildings they utilized, some of which were particularly associated with the dark. Nocturnal quotidian practices shaped the archaeological record as much as diurnal ones, yet archaeologists have not routinely considered the night in their reconstructions of the past. Once we shine our light on the dark, patterns emerge which inform us more holistically about urban lives. Much of our economic, social, and ritual lives have been enacted at night, providing us with an opportunity to consider what the night offers. Many tasks are uniquely suited to the affordances of nighttime and are supported by the built environment of cities. Often times, night is quieter, and refuge from the hustle and bustle of city life is welcome. Darkness offers freedom from surveillance, stresses, the heat of the day. In this article, we examine the material record in conjunction with ancient writing to search for laborers in the night, those who worked the "nightshift" in antiquity.
Past Dark: A short introduction to the human relationship with darkness over time
In M. Dowd and R. Hensey (eds) The Archaeology of Darkness, 2016
Though comprehensive books have been published on areas related to darkness such as the history of the night, the role electrification has had in gradually excluding darkness from our lives, and the increasing elimination of dark night skies, literature on the subject of the darkness from the archaeological or historical perspective – especially as regards human interactions with ancient places and monuments – is rare, if not non-existent. Given that darkness would have had an even greater role in the past than it has today it is unclear why this might be so. One possible explanation for this oversight is that darkness is one of those areas that is so much part of our lives and of the history of our species that we tend not even to acknowledge it; it is too big to see, too fundamental, too pervasive. ‘Darkness’ is so many things: the dark of night; the darkness of deep winter; the darkness of the subterranean world; darkness as a metaphor we live by. It may only be recently as we have been able to begin to exclude it more successfully from our lives that, conversely, we become more aware of it – realised that we may be missing something.
Urban Nightscapes of the Late Classic Maya of Mesoamerica
ICNS Conference Proceedings, 2020
(EN) The urban experience is a phenomenon that we humans created beginning about 5,000 years ago, but we have faced the night for eons. Archaeology is uniquely suited to answer long-term questions of urban adaptation, and in particular, how humans coped with nocturnal dimensions of city life. A case study that well illustrates the challenges and opportunities of the night and how these reflect inequalities is the culture of the Late Classic Maya (600-900 CE) of Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica). In the neotropics, Maya people constructed grand cities of sky-high temples, palatial residences, grand open plazas, roads, and residential areas we would call suburbs. The Maya created an enduring culture that thrived as much during the day as it did during the night and their infrastructure both facilitated and hampered nocturnal practices and reinforced social inequalities. The duality of Mesoamerican philosophy pervaded the natural cycle of the Earth's rotation, lending distinct characteristics to daylight and darkness. Dark nights and dark doings characterized the Classic Maya realm, a world full of real and fantastical beasts that roamed the landscape after sunset, in urban and rural venues alike. The night was ideal for some activities, such as communing with the ancestors, while the darkness obscured and prevented others, such as safe travel. The creation of a unique nighttime atmosphere by country folk and city-dwellers was shared across social strata, binding together commoners and king. Disparities, however, were illuminated in the material, such as housing and lighting, and in the performance of nocturnal culture, such as how opulently one communed with the dead. Essential activities ensued during the night as it was simultaneously the domain of the servant and the served, each having unique contributions to society. Drudgery and duty prevailed as it did during daylight hours, with royalty performing their tasks to ensure the continuance of the polity with their many rituals and followers attending to mundane activities of cooking and agriculture. Nightly
Hunter-gatherer religions and rituals have fascinated the western world almost since the first contacts between European and small-scale non-farming societies and cultures. In part this interest has been fueled by the perceived exoticism of the foragers' beliefs and practices; partly by administrative/religious concerns; and also for more purely intellectual reasons. Early encounters with and descriptions of Siberian shamans, for example, were widely broadcast in eighteenth-century Western Europe, where they influenced artists such as Mozart and Goethe (Flaherty 1992). Spanish missionaries in the Americas, starting with the Columbus expeditions, recorded detailed information on indigenous beliefs and practices, recognizing this knowledge as valuable in promoting conversions to Catholicism (e.g., Pané [1494-6] 2006; Geiger and Meighan [1812-5] 1976; Boscana [1822] 1978)-in the process inventing systematic ethnological research and ethnographic reporting. Academic concerns reflect numerous disciplines, including anthropology (e.g., Kroeber 1907), sociology (e.g., Durkheim [1912] 2001), the history of religion/religious studies (e.g., Eliade 1972), folklore and mythology (e.g., Gayton and Newman 1940), ethnobotany and pharmacology (e.g., Schultes 1977), psychiatry (Silverman 1967), and archaeology (e.g., Price 2001; Ross and Davidson 2006). Huntergatherer religions-at least as re-interpreted in contemporary western terms-also figure prominently in the New Age/self-realization and alternative medicine and psychiatric movements (e.g., Senn 1989). The result is a very broad body of literature, ensuring that this topic will be researched and debated long into the future.
Çatalhöyük: A Study of Light and Darkness-A Photo-essay
Abstract This photo essay outlines the experimental work undertaken in summer 2007 inÇatalhöyük in Anatolia, Turkey, while the author was the artist in residence. The workdone in this Neolithic settlement led to the discovery of a sun clock, i.e. a beam of lightpresent in each dwelling entering from the roof and drifting like a sun dial to differentareas of the house. The parallelogram of light produced by the beam created a pattern oflight and shadow, showing the archaeological importance of shadows and their power to reveal aspects of people’s lives in the settlement. Based on the study of the shadows observed and filmed in Çatalhöyük indoors and outdoors, this chapter examines thefunctions and purposes of selected shadows that show how approaching archaeology from an artist’s viewpoint can enhance interpretation, understanding, and the production of knowledge.