Archaeology Of The Night: Life After Dark In The Ancient World

Description

How did ancient peoples experience, view, and portray the night? What was it like to live in the past when total nocturnal darkness was the norm? "Archaeology of the Night" explores the archaeology, anthropology, mythology, iconography, and epigraphy of nocturnal practices and questions the dominant models of daily ancient life. A diverse team of experienced scholars uses a variety of methods and resources to reconstruct how ancient peoples navigated the night and what their associated daily - and nightly - practices were. This collection challenges modern ideas and misconceptions regarding the night and what darkness and night symbolized in the ancient world, and it highlights the inherent research bias in favor of "daytime" archaeology. Numerous case studies from around the world (including Oman, Mesoamerica, Scandinavia, Rome, Great Zimbabwe, Indus Valley, Peru, and Cahokia) illuminate subversive, social, ritual, domestic, and work activities, such as witchcraft, ceremonies, feasting, sleeping, nocturnal agriculture, and much more. Were there artifacts particularly associated with the night? Authors investigate individuals and groups (both real and mythological) who share a special connection to nighttime life. Reconsidering the archaeological record, "Archaeology of the Night" views sites, artifacts, features, and cultures from a unique perspective. This book is relevant to anthropologists and archaeologists and also to scholars of human geography, history, astronomy, sensory studies, human biology, folklore, and mythology. List of Figures xi List of Tables xv Foreword / Jerry D. Moore 17 Preface / Nancy Gonlin xxix Section I: Introduction 1. Introduction to the Archaeology of the Night / Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell 5 Section II: Nightscapes 2. Upper Paleolithic Soundscapes and the Emotional Resonance of Nighttime / April Nowell 27 3. Classic Maya Nights at Copan, Honduras, and El Cerén, El Salvador / Nancy Gonlin and Christine C. Dixon 45 4. The Night Is Different: Sensescapes and Affordances in Ancient Arizona / Kathryn Kamp and John C. Whittaker 77 5. "La Luz de Aceite es Triste": Nighttime, Community, and Memory in the Colorado–New Mexico Borderlands / Minette C. Church 95 Section III: The Night Sky 6. Nighttime Sky and Early Urbanism in the High Andes: Architecture and Ritual in the Southern Lake Titicaca Basin during the Formative and Tiwanaku Periods / Alexei Vranich and Scott C. Smith 121 7. Night in Day: Contrasting Ancient and Contemporary Maya and Hindu Responses to Total Solar Eclipses / Anthony F. Aveni 139 8. In the Sea of Night: Ancient Polynesia and the Dark / Cynthia L. Van Gilder 155 Section IV: Nocturnal Ritual and Ideology 9. Night Moon Rituals: The Effects of Darkness and Prolonged Ritual on Chilean Mapuche Participants / Tom D. Dillehay 179 10. Where Night Reigns Eternal: Darkness and Deep Time among the Ancient Maya / Jeremy D. Coltman 201 11. The Emerald Site, Mississippian Women, and the Moon / Susan M. Alt 223 Section V: Illuminating the Night 12. A Great Secret of the West: Transformative Aspects of Artificial Light in New Kingdom Egypt / Meghan E. Strong 249 13. Burning the Midnight Oil: Archaeological Experiments with Early Medieval Viking Lamps / Erin Halstad McGuire 265 Section VI: Nighttime Practices 14. Engineering Feats and Consequences: Workers in the Night and the Indus Civilization / Rita P. Wright and Zenobie S. Garrett 287 15. All Rome Is at My Bedside: Nightlife in the Roman Empire / Glenn Reed Storey 307 16. Midnight at the Oasis: Past and Present Agricultural Activities in Oman / Smiti Nathan 333 17. Fluid Spaces and Fluid Objects: Nocturnal Material Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa with Special Reference to the Iron Age in Southern Africa / Shadreck Chirikure and Abigail Joy Moffett 353 18. The Freedom that Nighttime Brings: Privacy and Cultural Creativity among Enslaved Peoples at Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Bahamian Plantations / Jane Eva Baxter 369 Section VII: Concluding the Night Afterword: A Portal to a More Imaginative Archaeology / Margaret Conkey 387 List of Contributors 391 Index 397