Towards an Archaeology of Energy: The Materiality of Heat, Light, and Power in 17th and 18th century Durham, England

Summary

This paper proposes an archaeology of energy, probing the historical materialities of heat, light, and power. Our modern high carbon world is the result of a series of historical and material processes in which objects, peoples, spaces, and relationships coalesced into regimes of energy. The traces of these regimes are visible in material things and can be investigated archaeologically. We offer up a case study from an epicenter of the transition to a high carbon world: 17th and 18th century Durham, in England. During this time, gentry families like the Bakers from Durham shifted from agricultural production to raw material extraction, particularly coal mining, as their primary means of livelihood. This transition, which powered the industrial revolution, required and constituted new materialities, spaces, and social relations. We offer data from Judith Baker’’s account books, as well as comparative data, to situate this family within a regime of energy, and to exemplify our approach.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Mining and Industry   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-81,06