Among the many forms and styles of construction used across the centuries pebbledash is to many – one that sobers and does not please. Driving through many seaside towns you might catch, through the rain and sea mist, blurs of office buildings and converted B&B’s sporting this particular style. Despite the aesthetic displeasure it brings to many, for millions this technique of construction is part of their daily life. This technique is culture – it holds perceptions of those that have seen it and live in between its walls. These small and often meaningless perceptions of our physical reality live very much in the mind of individuals. However, they are not written down for History to remember.
The question, therefore, is it possible to determine the perceptions of the ancient people of the past?
A Dog enters a Bar
It could be said that one-way humans collectively understand each other’s own reality is through humour. Jokes, among many other things, takes an individual reality and brings up to a level of common understanding. Is it therefore through Humour that we may come to understand the intricate realities of the past?
In roughly the year 1700BC (Middle Bronze age), in the Ancient Sumerian City Nippur, south of Baghdad, someone felt the need to record a local or spreading proverb, It Reads:
“A dog, having entered an inn, did not see anything, (and so he said): ‘Shall I open this door?’”
(E.L Gordon)
This is not a funny joke. But, maybe, to an Ancient Sumerian Barman this absurdist joke could’ve been the one he retold to his friends his whole life. In fact, it’s Lynchian imagery has created an entire internet meta on the Ancient Sumerian Dog joke whose punchline entirely relies on the seemingly lack of one in the original text. What is behind the door, is entirely up for debate. Among most scholars the argument generally follows that the word used of ‘Inn’ can also be translated to ‘Brothel’ meaning that that Dog entered the Inn with the full intention of seeing what was happening behind closed doors. It could also be a reference to something that time forgot, a Politician or someone of notable eminence, a social custom or maybe a real event. Either way to a modern reader the comprehension of the punchline is completely void.
Despite the lack of a concrete definition, the fact this incomprehensible joke still make some sort of abstract sense allows us to gain a small insight into an inconsequential part of the past. The text itself doesn’t reveal a great battle between empires nor the speech of a great Political Leader, things that western civilisation’s focus and admire upon when reflecting on their own heritage. It rather gives us an insight into the base culture of humanity, united in conveying the commonalties in daily life using the form of humour. Wittgenstein saw humour as a way of looking at the world rather than a general emotional. Therefore, in retrospect, we can utilise this type of Archaeological evidence to get an understanding of perception and culture within the same inscription.
Stimuli in colour
Colour influences perception on a level that remains nearly constant across humanities history. Colour could originate as an evolutionary tool to determine illness or emotion (flushed cheeks, for example) which allows for social interaction that relies on a visual stimulant. This allowed civilisations to use colour to their advantage whether that in be art or in visual exertions of power. For Example:
The complementary intertwine between the turquoise, browns and the blacks allows for concentration on the two central figures. The purpose is clear, pure idolatry of war the constructs that propel it. The colours tell us how to perceive its content according to design, in this very striking and vivid case, exertion of power is key. If we are to take our instinctual reaction to its colours as consistent with the reaction of those in the ancient past, we can determine roughly what they thought of it. Although
through the absence a written reaction of this frieze, we cannot determine the true nature of its influence. This missing context could change the whole meaning altogether, just as much as the colour red no longer signifies its base emotion but rather the commercialism of the 21st century. Yet, especially within archaeology where there is absence there is assumption. Therefore, given humanities tendency towards a grandiose display of power, it can be assumed that frieze is serving a similar purpose.
In conclusion, the difficulty of determining the thoughts of regular people in the distance past regarding culture is near impossible. This is for two reasons: the first is the lack of importance to which it was given in the contemporary era. This leads to a long-term cultural amnesia in which the perception of the masses is forgotten. This tradition can even be seen now in the lack of importance given to people’s own thoughts of daily life – something that is only prevented though the consistency of a personal diary. Secondly, are the examples of worldly perception that have been lost, destroyed, or still buried under the earth. The ones that do exist do not paint a large enough picture to see the past in the light it was originally seen under. Therefore, until there is a large enough amount of written and material culture evidencing the perceptions of everyday life, the past will remain unfinished.