First (artificial) Light
The aim of First (artificial) Light is to establish an evidential basis for an understanding of the impact upon human communities of the first appearance of portable light in the form of lamps. While not found in Britain before the Roman period, lamps are first documented in the East Mediterranean in the later 4th millennium BC. This makes their appearance contemporary with key changes in the organization of human communities in that area such as the development of complex urban settlements.
While Roman lamps have been well studied, and earlier lamps have been catalogued as museum objects, there has been limited research on the impact of artificial light on people’s lives. This programme of work first seeks to establish some basic parameters through empirical research by experimental work using copies of ancient lamps. For example how do light strength, intensity, colour, smell, smokiness etc. vary according to lamp size and design and the choice of fuel - sheep-fat, beeswax, olive oil, sesame oil etc.? Once such baseline data is established it will then be possible to model the likely impact of lamps on activity in different types of space (e.g. tombs and domestic structures) and for example, to explore the relationship between light source, room size, light distributions, the level of light required for different activities, and so establish the extent to which artificial light would have facilitated changes in human economic and social activity.
The collation of archaeological data on the forms, date and spatial extent of early lamps will be undertaken through student dissertations. Accompanying experimental work will be undertaken in collaboration with the Science Learning Centre North East. Activities will be designed for students (with supporting professional development for teachers) to investigate fuel and lamp properties, linking to aspects of the post-16 chemistry curriculum. Primary-aged children and their teachers may also engage in activities investigating how lamps work, imitating lamp manufacture and testing the properties of light generated by different lamps and fuels. The project promotes links between scientific, archaeological and historical concepts in practical, realistic and novel ways.
Term 1
Two twilight planning sessions with two primary teachers. Two half-day primary science workshops, each for 30 children aged 10 -11.
Term 2
Two twilight planning sessions with four secondary teachers. Two half-day secondary science workshops, each for 20 16 – 17 year olds.
Experimental work will be undertaken in collaboration with SLCNE involving school groups. The project offers a novel opportunity to undertake a cross-curricular investigation of students’ understanding about a practical, everyday item, the portable lamp. Students’ misconceptions relating to light are well documented. This project offers the potential to extend this knowledge by probing ideas about the development and value of portable light sources to human development. En route, the opportunity exists to investigate older students’ understanding of combustion reactions using unusual fuels; and primary-aged students’ thinking about how lamps work, are made and used. Resulting data will form the basis of a journal article which will set the parameters for the technical possibilities of early lamps, and map their forms and distribution across the east Mediterranean.
The data gathered will feed into a Research Workshop, Light and Dark in Prehistory – The Impact of Artificial Light on Early Human Communities, scheduled for summer 2014, which will bring together scholars to work through the social and economic implications of artificial light on early complex societies.
For further information contact Professor Graham Philip (
graham.philip@
durham.ac.uk) and Vanessa Kind (SLCNE -
vanessa.kind@
durham.ac.uk).
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