Looking for Light in Ancient Egyptian Nocturnal Rituals

Summary

This is an abstract from the "After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Given the modern abundance of artificial light, it is often assumed that ancient cultures had the means and desire to illuminate the night. The paucity of artificial lighting devices from ancient Egypt challenges this assumption and has led scholars to conclude that the evidence must be there, but earlier archaeologists have failed to recognize lighting equipment. This presentation will reexamine that viewpoint and incorporate evidence from the rich textual and iconographic record of the New Kingdom (ca. 1550 – 1070 BC). The New Year’s festival serves as a case study for examining the necessity for lighting devices, the relative cost of obtaining a lighting implement, and the significance of employing light in nocturnal rituals. The sensorial impact of artificial light will also be explored and provide new insight into the experience of night in ancient Egypt.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23211