eff ects in their work. Statues of King Khafre, builder of the
second great pyramid at Giza, were originally placed in an
open court of his pyramid temple, where they were exposed
to the sun. Some of these royal effi gies are rendered in an-
orthosite gneiss, a hard and rather unattractive stone. It has
been revealed, however, that when placed in strong sunlight,
the stone generates a deep blue glow, suggesting that it was
chosen specifi cally for this purpose, to give the statues a mys-
terious, celestial quality.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Before the invention of the oil lamp, ancient peoples of the
Near East used torches, candles, hearths, and ovens for arti-
fi cial light. In many parts of the Near East sunlight was harsh
and something to be escaped. Located in central Anatolia
(modern-day Turkey), the city of Çatalhüyük (ca. 7000 b.c.e.)
had no streets. Houses were joined together without space
between them. People climbed through trapdoors onto their
roofs and then walked from rooft op to rooft op. Although the
roofs were fl at, they were of diff erent heights; thus, people
used ladders to go from level to level. As a result, the interiors
of homes were very dark and probably much cooler than the
outside. Illumination probably came from hearths, with open
trapdoors in roofs venting the smoke. Some buildings, such
as temples or shrines, had windows. A small window high in
a wall would allow sunlight to fall on an altar or on worship-
pers. In some cases, in large chambers, torches seem to have
been used for light.
In ancient Mesopotamia houses were refuges from the
sun. Brick houses with walls up to eight feet thick were usu-
ally built without windows. Th e thick walls were intended to
keep out the heat. Usually the only opening a house had was
a door, but some houses had a window. Windows were fi t-
ted with grillwork, probably wooden. Many well-to-do Mes-
opotamians had homes with courtyards; some such homes
were in Babylon. In that city such houses varied in size from
18 feet long and 8 feet wide to 45 feet long and 17 feet wide.
Palm-wood planks overlaid by rushes would cover much of
the courtyard, providing shade and shielding interior doors
from direct sunlight.
Mesopotamians made extensive use of oil lamps to il-
luminate the interiors of their homes. Torches were used to
light fortifi cations, city streets, and temples at night. Interi-
ors of temples were oft en kept shadowy, with torches barely
illuminating the statues of gods within. Th is dim lighting
added to the mystery of the temples. Interiors of palaces
were usually lit by torchlight. Torches were typically made
of bound reeds, though wood was used in parts of the Near
East where trees were plentiful. One end of the torch would
be bound with cloth that had been soaked in animal fat. For
night travel torchlight would have been essential for seeing
one’s way.
Candles were made of wicks of cotton or fl ax dipped in
tallow. Although candles were probably used in religious cer-
emonies, oil lamps were the preferred form of artifi cial light
for everyday use. Th e fi rst oil lamps in the Near East were
very simple aff airs made of fi red clay. Finding oil suitable for
lamps was diffi cult in Mesopotamia; sesame oil was usually
used. In other parts of the Near East, palm oil or olive oil was
used, with olive oil preferred by most people in the western
regions of the Near East.
In about 2200 b.c.e. oil lamps were shallow ceramic bowls
w it h four lips impressed on t heir sides. Onto t he lips were laid
wicks of cotton or fl ax. Most of the wick settled in the oil.
Some archaeologists suspect that four wicks were used, one
for each lip. At most, these lamps would have provided light
for about an hour. For many hardworking Mesopotamians,
an hour was about all they needed between quitting work
for the day and going to bed. Oil lamps became more varied,
with round or square shapes and only one lip. Th e lip began
small, but over time it gradually lengthened until it became
a spout. By 1200 b.c.e. oil lamps had become larger and were
able to hold more fuel than before, and the spout had become
pointed. Th e longer lip moved the fl ame farther away from
the main body of the lamp, making the lamp somewhat easier
to handle because the fl ame made the body of the lamp hot.
Th e bottoms of lamps were either fl at or rounded. Th e
rounded bottoms may have served a couple of purposes.
First, rounded bottoms made the ceramic lamps easier to
stack, with the rounded bottom fi tting into the open bowl of
the lamp underneath. Second, rounded bottoms may have fi t
lamps into holders. Lamps could be set atop platforms with
legs, with the rounded bottom cradled in a circular band, per-
haps of metal, at the apex of the platform. Th e lamps could be
fi tted into frameworks that were hung from ceilings. Lamps
with either fl at or round bottoms could be set into niches in
walls. Lamps made of copper or bronze could be nailed to
walls or hung from hooks from walls.
Th e development of metal lamps in the Near East is
harder to trace than that of ceramic lamps because ceramic
lamps were always more numerous and were in constant useA bronze lamp found at the palace of Persepolis, Persia. (Courtesy of
the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)
586 illumination: The Middle East