Key Pages:

Home

---

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

---

 

 

This week we will use our knowledge of typologies and the technical production of material culture to consider objects from the viewpoint not of the archaeological analyst but from the perspective of the consumer in the past. We will focus our attention on a particular class of object, the lamp but will also draw into the discussion the issues raised in the article by Richard Bulliet. Some of the questions we might ask concern the the importance of style, the practicality of an object, its role in signaling certain aspects of identity, and the ways in which it can "make us who we are." This might seem like a lot to ask of a simple piece of technology meant to peel back the darkness of night, but we must remain aware of the cultural and historical context in which such objects served. Here the ideas of al-Jahiz and his social critique, albeit tongue and cheek, might serve as a textual/intellectual compliment to our engagement with material things.