Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology

Light plays a crucial role in mediating relationships between people, things, and spaces, yet lightscapes have been largely neglected in archaeology study. This volume offers a full consideration of light in archaeology and beyond, exploring diverse aspects of illumination in different spatial and temporal contexts from prehistory to the present.

List of contents

• 1: Costas Papadopoulos and Holley Moyes: Illuminating Sensory Archaeologies


• Section I. Darkness


• 2: Paul Pettit, Stefanie Leluschko, and Takashi Sakamoto: Light, Human Evolution, and the Palaeolithic


• 3: Efrosyni Boutsikas: The Role of Darkness in Ancient Greek Religion and Religious Practice


• 4: Athanasia Zografou: Constructing the Invisible: Light and Darkness in the Topography of Hades


• 5: Holley Moyes, Lillian Rigoli, Stephanie Huette, Daniel R. Montello, Teenie Matlock, and Michael J. Spivey: Darkness and the Imagination: The Role of Environment in the Development of Spiritual Beliefs


• 6: Gail Higginbottom and Vincent Mom: Illuminating Time: The Visibility of Temporality in Prehistory


• Section II. Light in Myth, Ritual, and Cosmology


• 7: Robert Hensey: Rediscovering the Winter Solstice Alignment at Newgrange, Ireland


• 8: A. César González-García: Light and Shadow Effects in Megalithic Monuments in the Iberian Peninsula


• 9: Lucy Goodison: Sunlight, Divination, and the Dead in Aegean Ritual Tradition


• 10: Timothy R. Pauketat: Illuminating Triangulations: Moonlight and the Mississippian World


• 11: Ruth M. Van Dyke: The Chacoan World: Light and Shadow, Stone and Sky


• 12: Kevin Conti and William Walker: Animate Shadows of Bears and Giants


• Section III. Light in Sacred Architecture


• 13: Giulio Magli: The Beautiful Face of Ra: The Role of Sunlight in the Architecture of Ancient Egypt


• 14: Iakovos Potamianos: The Handling of Light: Its Effect on Form and Space in the Greek Temple and the Byzantine Church


• 15: Mikkel Bille and Tim Flohr Sørensen: In Visible Presence: The Role of Light in Shaping Religious Atmospheres


• 16: Maria Sardi and Ioannis Motsianos: Lighting in Muslim and Christian Religious Buildings: A Comparative Study


• Section IV. The Meaning of Light


• 17: Emília Pásztor: Prehistoric Light in the Air: Celestial Symbols of the Bronze Age


• 18: Bissera V. Pentcheva: Phenomenology of Light: The Glitter of Salvation in Bessarion's Cross


• 19: Eleni Bintsi: The Light of the Flame: Use and Symbolism of Light and Lighting Devices in Traditional Greek Culture


• 20: Eric C. Lapp: Encountering Photoamulets and the Use of Apotropaic Light in Late Antiquity


• Section V. Light in Private, Domestic, and Working Environments


• 21: Mary Shepperson: Visibility, Privacy, and Missing Windows: The Lighting of Domestic Space in Ancient Mesopotamia


• 22: Jean-Philippe Carrie: Lighting the 'Good Life': The Role of Light in the Aristocratic Housing System during Late Antiquity


• 23: Peter Dawson and Richard Levy: Thirty Days of Night: The Role of Light and Shadow in Inuit Architecture North of the Arctic Circle


• 24: David Griffiths: Household Consumption of Artificial Light at Pompeii


• 25: Ian West: Industrialising Light: The Development and Deployment of Artificial Lighting in Early Factories


• Section VI. Simulations and Reconstructions of Light


• 26: Aaron Watson and Ronnie Scott: Materialising Light, Making Worlds: Optical Image Projection within the Megalithic Passage Tombs of Britain And Ireland


• 27: Simon Stoddart, Caroline Malone, Michael Anderson, and Robert Barratt: Light and Dark in Prehistoric Malta


• 28: Matt Gatton: The Eleusinian Projector: The Hierophant's Optical Method of Conjuring the Goddess


• 29: Dorina Moullou and Fragiskos V. Topalis: Reconstructing Artificial Light in Ancient Greece


• 30: Dragö Gheorghiu: Lighting in Reconstructed Contexts: Experimental Archaeology with Pyrotechnologies


• 31: Eva Bosch: Çatalhöyük: A Study of Light and Darkness - A Photo-Essay


• Section VII. Light in Object Curation and Knowledge Production


• 32: Eleni Kotoula: Light and its Interaction with Antiquities and Works of Art: A Conservator's Perspective


• 33: Malcolm Innes: Lighting and Museum Exhibits


• 34: Nessa Leibhammer: Modalities of Meaning: Light and Shadow in Archaeological Images


• Afterword: On Light

About the author

Costas Papadopoulos is an Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities & Culture Studies at Maastricht University. His work has its roots in ethnography, archaeology, digital humanities, and museum and cultural studies, exploring modelling and representation at the intersections of the physical and the digital. It advances understandings of the experience and perception of heritage; engages with debates on the role of interactive research in digital humanities; explores ways to build epistemological frameworks for multimodal research; and integrates Arts into STE(A)M learning via socially-engaged research by facilitating digital literacy and creative thinking. Most of his research has focused on digital applications in archaeology and heritage with a particular emphasis on 3D visualisation. He is PI of PURE3D which develops an Infrastructure for the Publication and Preservation of 3D Scholarship.

Holley Moyes is a Professor of Anthropology and Heritage Studies and an Affiliate Faculty in the Cognitive and Information Sciences department at the University of California, Merced. Her main area of expertise is the archaeology of religion and she is particularly interested in ritual spaces. Although most of her field work is conducted in ancient Maya ritual cave sites in Belize, Central America, her broader interests encompass cross-cultural ritual cave use. She has published over 40 journal articles and book chapters on the subject of caves and her book Sacred Darkness: A Global Perspective on the Ritual Use of Caves won a 2013 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title.

Summary

Light plays a crucial role in mediating relationships between people, things, and spaces, yet lightscapes have been largely neglected in archaeology study. This volume offers a full consideration of light in archaeology and beyond, exploring diverse aspects of illumination in different spatial and temporal contexts from prehistory to the present.

Product details

• Authors: Costas (Assistant Professor in Digit Papadopoulos
• Assisted by: Moyes (Editor), Papadopoulos (Editor), Holley Moyes (Editor), Moyes Holley (Editor), Costas Papadopoulos (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9780198788218
• ISBN: 978-0-19-878821-8
• No. of pages: 816
• Series: Oxford Handbooks
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; Non-fiction book > History > Pre and early history, antiquity; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Environmental archaeology, Archaeological science, methodology and techniques, Archaeological methodology & techniques