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Ice age lamps
Abstract
The invention of fat-burning lamps toward the end of the Ice Age helped to transform European culture. It coincided with several other major technological advances.
... Jahren (Nordhaus, 1994). Steinlampen, in welchen Menschen Tierfett anzündeten, finden sich aus der letzten großen Eiszeit 20.000 -40.000 vor unserer Zeit (Beaune & Randall, 1993). Diese Lampen hatten bereits die Leuchtkraft heutiger Kerzen. ...
... Durante el lapso temporal que abarcó el Paleolítico Superior, la panoplia de iluminación usada en cuevas se adscribe a tres categorías: hogares/fogones, lámparas de grasa y antorchas, de los cuales existen numerosas evidencias en el registro arqueológico (sobre todo, de las dos primeras). Éstos constituían puntos de luz tanto fijos como móviles, siendo el caso de las lámparas y antorchas los artefactos que por su versatilidad pudieron ser escogidos para transitar en las cuevas, así como para producir y observar las representaciones artísticas (Beaune 1987a(Beaune , 2000Beaune y White 1993;Medina et al. 2012). El caso de estudio propuesto se localiza en la costa cantábrica, a poca distancia de la Bahía de Santander (España), la cueva de La Garma, un complejo karstico no activo, en concreto porponemos un amplio sector denominado: la Galería Inferior. ...
Stone and bone artefacts serving as expedient food-procurement and processing implements are the principal and most frequent findings at Palaeolithic sites. Utilitarian art items, often aesthetically fashioned artefacts, are much less common. Emergence of cognitive art within the broader Ural region was determined by progressive cultural developments and adaptations of anatomically modern human beings to mosaic mountain settings and parkland-steppes. At the Urals’ Late Pleistocene cave sites, objects, which were made frequently of unusual and rare materials and are presumed to be of a ritual nature, are represented by adornments and artworks bearing stylized pictorial images. Zoomorphic figurines produced from flint and mammoth ivory document the high skills of Stone Age artisans. The earliest, utilitarian, art-related works of the Urals include sculptures using natural pre-forms such as river pebbles and animal bones, occasionally ochre-painted or ornamented by incising or engraving. Personal decorations are represented by pendants and beads made of stone, shell, bone, and teeth of animals. Rare exemplars are made from material of non-local provenance, such as petrified wood or segments of fossil sea-lily (crinoids) and are indicators of a broad geographic activity-range and/or regional interactions among local groups of hunter-gatherers. Artisanal instruments associated with rock art, for example, lamps made from stone and clay as well as pieces of ochre, belong to a specific category. Aesthetic-looking minerals with appealing colours and textures, such as serpentine, rock crystal, chalcedony, and jasper, it may be assumed, were intended for religious or cultic purposes, but also may have been curated simply because of their natural rarity. These art-related items likely had symbolic value and spiritual meaning apart from purely decorative function. Understanding utilitarian art objects offers insights to every-day life of the Palaeolithic people of the Urals, and their behavioural and environmental adjustments, which culminated in multifarious, iconographic expressions at the end of the Last Glacial stage.
This paper focuses on the analysis and identification of two prehistoric lamps from Zgornje Radvanje (NE Slovenia). The analysis of the organic residues and experimental archaeology allowed us to characterize the fuel source and the wick remains of oval-formed ceramic artefacts from the Copper Age settlement. Infrared spectroscopy (ATR IR), GC-MS and GC-C-IRMS were used to study organic compounds in two archaeological samples, with comparative composition data yielding experiments with modern wicks, linseed oil and animal fats. ATR IR showed traces of plant fibres in the sample of charred residues from one of the lamps. A comparably higher frequency of straight-chain compounds with odd numbers of carbon atoms provided the extracted lipids from the ceramics of the second oval-formed ceramic artefact. We interpret these to mean that carbonised organic residues from the inner surface of the ceramic object are the result of smouldering, with the identified residues of plant fibres probably associated with the remnants of the wick. The GC-MS analysis showed a higher frequency of straight-chain compounds with odd numbers of carbon atoms (especially C15:0 fatty acids) together with two double bond positional isomers of C18:1 in the second oval-formed artefact. The presence of C18:2 and C18:3 fatty acids that are typical for linseed oils was also detected. These analysis together with GC-C-IRMS analysis suggest a predominant use of ruminant fat as fuel for lighting possibly in combination with plant oils. Burns similar to those on the original artefact were observed on replicas of the artefact after they were used as lamps.
Our evolutionary history is based on four fundamental pillars: physical activity, nutrition, inner mood and external environment. We live at the rhythm of an inner clock that leads everything we do, the so called circadian rhythm. The circadian system, that is ubiquitous across species, generates ~24 h rhythms in virtually all biological processes, and allows them to anticipate and adapt to the 24 h day/night cycle, thus ensuring optimal physiological function. During the day our organism spends its energy in order to complete catabolic pathways which help us in our relationship with the external environment, while at night anabolic pathways, repairing, strengthening and growth-orientated, prevails. External environment can influence both our circadian rhythm and our body chemistry. Within the last 100 years, environmental conditions are extremely changed: the artificial light (also by televisions screens, smartphones and computers) is lighting up our world 24 hours a day, the background noise is a constant in our everyday life and the air pollution represent risk factors for our health and well-being by causing or facilitating diseases. Also our inner mood, emotions and environment are crucial for human beings’ and planet’s health and for the future of mankind. (healthy_habits)
Initial Upper Palaeolithic industries of South Siberia and Central Asia are dated to 35,000-50,000 ¹⁴C years BP. They have been identified in Russian Altai, Eastern Kazakhstan, Transbaikalia, Mongolia, Dzungaria and Ordos in the north of China. This paper deals with the materials from Mountain Altai (Kara-Bom and Ust-Karakol 1), Eastern Kazakhstan (Ushbulak-1) and Northern Mongolia (Tolbor 4). The traceological analysis and the stydy of core platform morphologies have shown that the technology of large blade production included a combination of several methods of fracture zone preparation. The preparation of striking platforms and flaking surfaces was done by means of consequtive overhang removal and/or reverse plarform reduction and picketage. This technique is characteristic of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic industries of South Siberia and Central Asia and can be regarded as a feature specific for this cultural unity.
We can trace the beginnings of our knowledge of early Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacian) use of fire to the pioneering 1910-1911 excavations at Abri Blanchard undertaken by Louis Didon and Marcel Castanet. At Blanchard, the excavators recognized and described fire structures that correspond in many ways to features excavated more recently in Western and Central Europe. Here, we address the issue of heat and light management in the early Upper Paleolithic, demonstrating a pattern that builds on these early excavations but that is refined through our recent field operations. Topics to be discussed include (1) recently excavated fire structures that suggest complex fire management and use, (2) the seemingly massive use of bone as fuel in most early Aurignacian sites, and (3) the anchoring of skin structures for purposes of heat retention with fireplaces behind animal-skin walls. Furthermore, new data on activities around fireplaces make it possible to infer social and organizational aspects of fire structures within Aurignacian living spaces. The vast majority of early Aurignacian occupations, most of them now dated to between 33,000 and 32,000 BP (uncalibrated), occurred on a previously unoccupied bedrock platform into which the occupants dug their fire features.
Initial Upper Palaeolithic industries of South Siberia and Central Asia are dated to 35,000—50,000 14C years BP. They have been identified in Russian Altai, Eastern Kazakhstan, Transbaikalia, Mongolia, Dzungaria and Ordos in the north of China. This paper deals with the materials from Mountain Altai (Kara-Bom and Ust-Karakol 1), Eastern Kazakhstan (Ushbulak-1) and Northern Mongolia (Tolbor 4). The traceological analysis and the stydy of core platform morphologies have shown
that the technology of large blade production included a combination of several methods of fracture zone preparation. The preparation of striking platforms and flaking surfaces was done by means of consecutive overhang removal and / or reverse platform reduction and pecking. This technique is characteristic of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic industries of South Siberia and Central Asia and can be regarded as a feature specific for this cultural unity.
Advances in digital technology have raised the capacity of capturing, processing and analyzing spatial data, bringing realistic and accurate reproductions of the elements in archaeological spaces. Current hardware and software have great potential in modelling phenomena and simulating their parameters, leading effective resources to these archaeological issues that have been hard to tackle until recent dates (intrusive techniques, heritage risk, hidden places, unavoidable impediments…). Thus, to approach contextual implications, we propose lighting simulation in aphotic sites as a procedure to study spatial relations between social agents and elements. In this paper we relate the necessary light intensity, its spatial distribution, and any derived implications for activity performing, especially in rock art production and visualization.
Currently, in developed countries, nights are excessively illuminated (light at night), whereas daytime is mainly spent indoors, and thus people are exposed to much lower light intensities than under natural conditions. In spite of the positive impact of artificial light, we pay a price for the easy access to light during the night: disorganization of our circadian system or chronodisruption (CD), including perturbations in melatonin rhythm. Epidemiological studies show that CD is associated with an increased incidence of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cognitive and affective impairment, premature aging and some types of cancer. Knowledge of retinal photoreceptors and the discovery of melanopsin in some ganglion cells demonstrate that light intensity, timing and spectrum must be considered to keep the biological clock properly entrained. Importantly, not all wavelengths of light are equally chronodisrupting. Blue light, which is particularly beneficial during the daytime, seems to be more disruptive at night, and induces the strongest melatonin inhibition. Nocturnal blue light exposure is currently increasing, due to the proliferation of energy-efficient lighting (LEDs) and electronic devices. Thus, the development of lighting systems that preserve the melatonin rhythm could reduce the health risks induced by chronodisruption. This review addresses the state of the art regarding the crosstalk between light and the circadian system.
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