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Archaeologists investigate what life was like after dark in the ancient world

psmag.com

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Re: Archaeologists investigate what life was like after dark in the ancient world

#4
I've never understood why this topic is being studied primarily through archaeology. There are plenty of humans alive today that live far from much artificial light and could tell you exactly what their life is like right now, what they did last night. Shouldn't have to be so hard / so mysterious

Re: Archaeologists investigate what life was like after dark in the ancient world

#6
post #4

I've never understood why this topic is being studied primarily through archaeology. There are plenty of humans alive today that live far from much artificial light and could tell you exactly what their life is like right now, what they did last night . Shouldn't have to be so hard / so mysterious

Partially because the humans alive today don't have the same culture as the humans in the past. I'd imagine that a comparison between lit+unlit living today would fall under the umbrella of sociology.

Re: Archaeologists investigate what life was like after dark in the ancient world

#8
I've wondered how particulate pollution affects this, also. Discussions on this topic always seem to always focus on light pollution, but anyone taking a flight can see a haze just about anywhere from pollution. I'd imagine it diffuses incoming light from extraterrestrial sources and it reflects light pollution, for a double-whammy.

Re: Archaeologists investigate what life was like after dark in the ancient world

#9

The concept of night mayors is interesting, and I’d love to see the concept extended further into other sectors of government.

As I recall from the 1980s sitcom Night Court, there are night judges (though I have no idea if that is a real thing, I doubt my town has night judges).

Re: Archaeologists investigate what life was like after dark in the ancient world

#10
Very interesting. There was one other scholarly work in this general area — but that was comparatively much more recent: Roger Ekirch’s “At Day’s Close” [1], which is very well-researched and covers pre-artificial-light Europe.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/At-Days-Close-Night-Times/dp/03933290...

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