Medieval Caves with Alexander D’Alisera

I am wondering though, like too, like the thing I'm thinking about, and maybe this is just a stupid modern assumption on my part speaking about darkness, is that, you know, in a world before electric light, like is that experience of darkness so different than ours? Like, you know, living in the 21st, like I'm surrounded by light everywhere, like there is just light everywhere, and so total darkness perhaps may be a little bit more jarring for us than it might be to someone who lived by candlelight or moonlight or sunlight or, or things of that nature.

But is, is that something that you've noticed the sources kind of talking about?

It's something I'd like to look into a, a bit more-

Hmm

... especially through the lens of some, some of the sort of interesting experimental archeology that-

Oh, yeah.

Mm-hmm

... that happens in caves.

I'm talking from a distant memory of a, of a conference paper I heard years ago.

Sure, sure, sure.

Full disclosure, but I, I seem, I, I recall there being interesting work done in, uh, Lascaux, the famous, uh, prehistoric site in the South of France with great sort of prehistoric cave paintings and all that.

And, uh, I seem to recall that the, uh, archeologist had worked really hard to try to replicate like a prehistoric lamp using holy materials that would've been available at the time and place and, and whatnot to try to recreate as best as possible the experience of that kind of light in that kind of environment.

Hmm.

'Cause something we also have to remember about our moment here as far as light and electricity goes is When we go into a cave with flashlights, that's an imposition of modern technology.

Mm-hmm.

That's pretty, as far as our senses go, that's a static light.

It's not a flickering candle.

Yeah.

It's not an oil, right? It's not a torch.

Not to get too Platonic or whatever, but, you know, we, we can think back to Plato-

Yeah

... and the Allegory of the Cave, right? The flickering lights, the shadows.

I, I think I could do some work in some of my sites trying to incorporate flickering light-

Yeah

... and more, uh, historically accurate, if you will, light sources to try to, uh, get a better sense of that phenomena.