Light into darkness : reflections on light and light-well chambers in tombs and temples of the first millennium BC
Abstrakt
The article investigates aspects of continuity, discontinuity and change within a clearly defined spatial construct: a court open to the light of day (a so-called light-well chamber) occurring in monuments otherwise steeped in darkness. The study covers the era from the New Kingdom to the early Roman period in Egypt, and combines information from both temples and tombs.
Overall the study indicates the existence and continuation of a train of thought throughout the first millennium BC that connects on an architectural, functional and conceptual level these light-well chambers, whether in tomb or temple and whether in an Egyptian or Greek environment, with specific ritual acts and as a background for the interaction between the dead, the living and the divine.