Regarding The Lighting of Ancient Egyptian Tombs.

Here are a few of my comments on one of the mysteries about Ancient Egypt, specifically how they were able to light the interior of some of their structures, specifically their tombs.

IMHO, of all of the traditional ancient civilizations, the one that is the most fascinating is Ancient Egypt. I mean it is not too difficult to play make-believe or the 'what if' game and imagine yourself or place yourself in Ancient Greece or in Ancient Roman society. But Ancient Egypt is somehow just really different. Their gods were different; their architecture was different; their politics were different; their worldviews were different; their concepts about the afterlife were different. Probably that's why tens of thousands of books and videos and documentaries have been written and produced about Ancient Egyptian culture and society and why Egyptology remains such a popular subject for laypeople, as well as for amateur and professional archaeologists and historians alike.

No matter which way you slice and dice things, it is a bona-fide mystery as to how those Ancient Egyptians were able to do highly detailed artistic paintings in say the Valley of the Kings tombs, many of which extended for many hundreds of feet into solid rock in a downward slope with all manner of twists and turns also with individual walled off rooms, etc. They obviously needed a good light source(s). The use of reflecting mirrors from outside has been experimentally debunked. That leaves naked flames, but then too the oxygen supply deep inside these tombs was iffy. Professional Egyptologists will admit that this is just one of those many mysteries about Ancient Egypt that hasn't really been adequately solved yet.

While some Egyptian structures were open to natural lighting - sunlight, not all Ancient Egyptian structures were open to the sky until a roof was put on. Again, I refer to those tombs in the Valley of the Kings (and Valley of the Queens) which were dug out of solid rock so there was always solid rock overhead - just like as in underground mining.

I dismissed the existence of Ancient Egyptian light bulbs despite some suggestive images to the contrary because there is no other infrastructure to support such technology. Thus the images, while they look like light bulbs, have a more prosaic explanation which I'm sure professional Egyptologists can wax lyrical about.

Now I am referring here more to lighting in general than specifically light bulbs. The presence of soot might be attributed to oil / candles as evidence for Ancient Egyptian lighting of dark tomb interiors. Soot of course could have always come after-the-fact via tomb robbers or possibly from 18th or 19th Century 'modern' day explorers. I would still be concerned about the oxygen supply when dealing with the back end of many hundred foot passageways without any ventilation shafts, as you might find in the Valley of the Kings. Dozens of workmen as well as naked flames might be less than ideal from an occupational health and work safety point of view. Quite apart from that, trying to do detailed artwork by the light of a naked flame from whatever the source is not my idea of ideal working conditions either.

I'm sure that there are prosaic explanations here and that 'ancient astronauts' had nothing to do with providing any means of lighting for doing work, be it construction or artistic, on or in Ancient Egyptian structures. However, some works are harder to explain than others when it comes to that 'how' question, but I don't see any need to explain these anomalies or mysteries in certain cases with the use of more modern technologies that are just not documented in the literature. As I've indicated, aliens didn't build the pyramids (which doesn't diminish from the many mysteries surrounding those structures) and the Egyptians didn't get the loan of flash-lights from them either when decorating those tombs.

In comparison, I note that many of those prehistoric, palaeolithic, cave art renderings are very impressive given the often confined, tight spaces that access required. Clearly the reason(s) for doing these artistic renderings were of great significance to the peoples concerned. This wasn't art for the sake of art. Given that the vast majority of subjects rendered were animals, and probably game animals, animals hunted for food and shelter (hides) and furs (clothing), this probably had something to do with what we'd term today a superstitious ritual. This probably had something to do with ensuring a good hunt, or tribute for a successful hunt. Whatever the reason(s), it was worth the time and effort required.