Pásztor Emília (szerk.): A fény régészete. A természetes fény szerepe az őskori ember életében - Bajai dolgozatok 20. (Baja, 2017)
Bevezetés
Bevezetés/lntroductic Introduction At first glance, light doesn't seem to be an archaeological artifact. Yet, it could bring us information from several million light years ago. Look at the sun, and you will only see its face from 6 minutes ago, the time necessary for sunlight to arrive to Earth. What we can see around us is all thanks to the emitted or reflected sunlight. Thus, we basically always see the 'past', no matter how little time it takes for light to arrive to our eyes. And yet, light is usually not in the scope of archaeological studies. It cannot be found among the objects of excavations. Therefore, the role of 'ancient' light in cultural heritage cannot be studied with any direct method. We could finish this introduction at this point, if we didn't know just how significant light (or the lack of it) was in the past, present and future of our civilization. Humans and most creatures cannot exist without light. However, humans also bestow light or its source with spiritual power This significance gives us the authority to include light and its connection to mankind - manifested in constant attempts to reshape the environment - among archaeological studies. Thus, the study of light with archaeological method does not seem so strange or unreasonable anymore. Recently international anthropological and archaeological studies started to recognize and accept the fact that light has to be part of archaeological interpretations of space, form and behaviour. (Papadopoulos—Moyes 2017). Light can be artificial or natural based on the source of emission. Studies of artificial light mainly evolved around examining light emitting objects, which is not necessarily different from the basic archaeological method. Good examples are Polish clay lamps; whose function is debated. Apart from being a profane illuminant, it is also identified as a rite tool, altar, or ritual vessel associated to women („Kulttischchen") (Zalai-Gaál 1995, Bánffy 1997; Zalai-Gaál - Köhler - Osztás 2010). This direction could be further developed if research would be extended to look into the creation, circumstances, role and effects of artificial light. However, this field is still very understudied. It is also a great challenge to study the effect of natural light and its source on people and communities. But there are indirect methods which can make it possible. Archaeoastronomy plays a leading role among such archaeological 16
