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An experimental approach to lighting systems in Paleolithic caves
- pencilguin 4y agoI have been trying without success thus far to understand how all these Egyptian tunnels seem to wholly lack soot on the ceiling. Likewise, in pyramids. Even tomb robbers would have needed slight, and would not have made any effort to keep the ceiling clean.
- contingencies 4y agoI think they knew how to polish things, so it was probably a combination of "it wasn't all built at once" (ie. tunnel wasn't a tunnel when built) plus "we redirected some sunlight in there to help see" plus "we painted it after construction".
- pencilguin 4y agoThe "Valley of the Kings" tombs are burrowed into living rock. To paint ceilings demands light.
- throwaway4aday 4y agoYou don't want a lot of smoke in an enclosed space so cleaner burning light sources would have been used. Oil lamps burning very light grease or oil would probably have been used by the painters since they last longer, produce less smoke and are easier to handle than a torch.
- pencilguin 4y agoThat's one mystery less. Ventilation at the ends of the tunnels is another mystery. It was heavy labor knocking out those cavernous spaces. All I can think of is they just abandoned work for a while when the air got too bad. (Piped-in air seems too unlikely.) Lots of the Valley of Kings tombs were unfinished when used, so it might just have been slow going. Heavy stonecutting out in the open involved building a fire against a stone face and then quenching it to fracture and weaken the rock. But that wouldn't work in those tunnels. The ancients worldwide cut through fantastic amounts of stone, often in close quarters. Ancient Celts invented hard-rock mining, cutting deep into mountains. They all solved it, somehow, likely differently in different places. But details matter.
- gruturo 4y agoMaybe they used an Aziz solution? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvwd13F_1Gs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvwd13F_1Gs (With my apologies to the HN crowd where jokes and witty one-liners are a bit out of place, but this particular one won't ever be more relevant to a discussion)
- pencilguin 4y agoOlive oil lamps. That solves that, then. Mostly. Tomb robbers maybe mostly didn't spend enough time inside to accumulate much soot? More-thorough British tomb robbers maybe used oil lamps.
- taberiand 4y agoMaybe some combination of olive oil lamps and putting the roof on last? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2OOrlhtdONE&t=29m38s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2OOrlhtdONE&t=29m38s