Archaeology of the Night

Life After Dark in the Ancient World

Nancy Gonlin, April Nowell, Nancy Gonlin, April Nowell

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781646421244, 9781607326779
• eBook ISBN: 9781607326786
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Contributors: Susan Alt, Anthony F. Aveni, Jane Eva Baxter, Shadreck Chirikure, Minette Church, Jeremy D. Coltman, Margaret Conkey, Tom Dillehay, Christine C. Dixon, Zenobie Garrett, Nancy Gonlin, Kathryn Kamp, Erin Halstad McGuire, Abigail Joy Moffett, Jerry D. Moore, Smiti Nathan, April Nowell, Scott C. Smith, Glenn R. Storey, Meghan Strong, Cynthia Van Gilder, Alexei Vranich, John C. Whittaker, Rita Wright

Index

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Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations.

acequias, 105, 111. See also irrigation systems

acoustics: cave, xxi–xxii, 35; of Sinagua villages, 91; Roman, 308, 329

adultery, Shona, 355, 359–60

Aeneas, 329

Aeneid (Virgil), on first sleep, 328–29

affordances, xvi, xxii, 79, 81, 82, 86, 373, 375, 376, 379, 390

Afghanistan, 289, 291

Africa, xxvi, 18, 58, 353. See also sub-Saharan Africa

agency, of objects, 224–25

agriculture: Classica Maya, 47, 48; Lake Titicaca Basin, 124; sub-Saharan Africa, 354–55, 357. See also oasis agriculture

ak’ab concept/glyph, xxiii, 59, 66, 202, 203, 204, 205, 214; ak’bal jars, 203, 210; ak’bal signs, 208, 209, 215(n1), 216(n4)

Akapana platform, 131, 132–33

alcohol: in Maya culture, 203; in Rome, 312–13. See also beer

Aleurites moluccana, xxi, 172(n19); in Hawaiian sites, 164–70; for illumination, 163–64

Alpha and Beta Centauri, 125; architectural alignments with, xxiv, 130, 131

Altar Q, 62

altars, skull-and-crossbones motifs on, 212, 213, 215, 217

altered states of consciousness (ASC), 180; machi use of, 186–88, 189

Amduat, 260

Amelioration Acts, 374–75

Amunnakht, tomb of, 257, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• Section I: Introduction
• Section II: Nightscapes
• 3. Classic Maya Nights at Copan, Honduras, and El Cerén, El Salvador
• 4. The Night Is Different: Sensescapes and Affordances in Ancient Arizona
• 5. “La Luz de Aceite es Triste”: Nighttime, Community, and Memory in the Colorado–New Mexico Borderlands
• Section III: The Night Sky
• 7. Night in Day: Contrasting Ancient and Contemporary Maya and Hindu Responses to Total Solar Eclipses
• 8. In the Sea of Night: Ancient Polynesia and the Dark
• Section IV: Nocturnal Ritual and Ideology
• 10. Where Night Reigns Eternal: Darkness and Deep Time among the Ancient Maya
• 11. The Emerald Site, Mississippian Women, and the Moon
• Section V: Illuminating the Night
• 13. Burning the Midnight Oil: Archaeological Experiments with Early Medieval Viking Lamps
• Section VI: Nighttime Practices
• 15. All Rome Is at My Bedside: Nightlife in the Roman Empire
• 16. Midnight at the Oasis: Past and Present Agricultural Activities in Oman
• 17. Fluid Spaces and Fluid Objects: Nocturnal Material Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa with Special Reference to the Iron Age in Southern Africa
• 18. The Freedom that Nighttime Brings: Privacy and Cultural Creativity among Enslaved Peoples at Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Bahamian Plantations
• Section VII: Concluding the Night
• List of Contributors
• Index