Background:
Dr. Nancy Gonlin is a distinguished archaeologist and professor of anthropology at Bellevue College, WA, USA, specializing in the ancient Mayas and broader Mesoamerican civilizations. She has pioneered research on nighttime activities in ancient societies, founding the subfield known as the Archaeology of the Night. Her work explores household archaeology, social inequality, and cultural ecology, offering fresh perspectives on how ancient peoples adapted to their environments in both diurnal and nocturnal settings. Dr. Gonlin has contributed extensively to the field, co-editing numerous books (e.g., Commoner Ritual and Ideology in Ancient Mesoamerica; Ancient Households of the Americas; Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica; and Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World, among others). Beyond research, she actively engages with the public through popular articles, presentations, and conferences. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Gonlin’s work, check out the resources listed at the bottom of this page.
I recently had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Professor Gonlin for an interview where we discussed her experiences, research, and passion for archaeology. Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:
What initially inspired you to pursue archaeology? Was there a particular moment or discovery that solidified your commitment to the field?
My parents brought me up to be aware of the past. I grew up in Pennsylvania where we visited a lot of historical sites. For example, we went to Philadelphia to see where Betsy Ross supposedly sewed the American flag and we visited the Liberty Bell. My family traveled to Johnstown, PA, where a big flood occurred. So we were aware of history. We went to a place called Indian Caverns in Pennsylvania where there was evidence that Native Americans had used the cave thousands of years ago, so I always had a good sense that there were people in North America long before other people came here from Europe. My upbringing helped me appreciate the past. When I found out there was an entire field of study dedicated to the past, I was really excited about that. And that’s how I got into archaeology.
What do you think sets apart archaeology from other fields of study? And why do you think it’s a field worth pursuing?
There are other disciplines that study the past, as you know. History is one of them. If you look at historical documents, most people in the past who wrote them were elites or upper class people. What results is an elite viewpoint, historically speaking. This point is especially important for the month of March which is National Women’s Month since men typically were educated and women were not. So what you’re getting is a biased view of history. When you look at historical documents, can they help? Absolutely, yes. There is a field called historical archaeology that relies on written documents in conjunction with archaeology. But you’re not getting the whole picture. Where archaeology comes in is that you can study anybody who lived in the past that left behind a material trace of their existence, whether those were enslaved peoples, women, children, lower classes, upper classes, anybody…what I decided is that I wanted to study the human past.
Your research also often highlights the everyday lives of ancient Maya commoners. What drew you to focus on commoners and their daily routines, rather than the more traditional focus on rulers and elites?
One thing that drew me to studying ancient Maya commoners is there was a general lack of knowledge about everyday people who were the farmers, people who were the producers of crafts, people who made up 90% of the population. We already knew about some of the kings and the queens because of digging the big palaces and the inscriptions, the Maya hieroglyphs. But we didn’t know a whole lot about the lifestyle of common people. How did an everyday person a thousand years ago or 1500 years ago live? What kind of lifestyle did they have? What did they eat? When did they get up? Those kinds of things are of interest to understand daily life. We had a vague idea. There were some excavations early on that took place, such as in the early 1900s. But in general, people found it more glamorous to make big finds and uncover a tomb or excavate a large structure. By studying ancient Maya commoners, I was able to contribute to our knowledge of about 90% of the population in the past.
And what prompted you to focus more specifically on Mesoamerican societies and ancient nocturnal practices?
I had the opportunity at Penn State to do fieldwork in Mesoamerica through my professors’ projects. I wanted to see for myself what it was like to do fieldwork.
Studying the night is a relatively new field. One evening, I was reading a book about daily practices in the past, and I was thinking, “What about nightly practices? What have people written about nightly practices?” This was over ten years ago when I realized there was very little research in this area. When I Googled “nightly practices,” “archaeology at night,” “nights in the past,” and other synonyms, nothing was coming up. I asked my advisor at Penn State, with whom I still keep in touch, what do you know about the night in archaeology? And he says, “Nothing. I don’t think there is anything.” I created this field of study because of my curiosity and imagination. It’s really important to have imagination as an archaeologist, because when you can dig up something, you need to think about what it is, what it means, and how it was used. For example, let’s look at a replica of a pottery vessel from Tiwanaku, Bolivia called a sahumador in Spanish. The person who excavated an original vessel told me that he had not thought about how this would function in the night until I asked him. You have to have curiosity, and then once you start looking at artifacts, different objects, you picture them in different contexts. And that context includes the night when it’s dark outside. This sahumador would be filled with some type of resin for burning, and it would be used at night to either keep warm or as a lamp. It would glow so that people could see in their houses. And these vessels are typically found in houses. Part of studying ancient nights is having the imagination to think about how people lived 24/7, not just getting up in the morning and going out and farming and coming back and doing other tasks. It involves 24 hours of living, not just part of the day.
As a pioneer in the field archaeology of the night, what challenges did you face when establishing this new field of study?
Some of my colleagues whom I approached about participating in a symposium were not interested because they were not familiar with the topic. One of the night volumes, [Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World], was produced from two different symposia. I must have contacted at least 100 archaeologists and they responded that “I have no idea what you’re talking about. You can’t do that. There are no data.” And I said, “well, you already have the data that you excavated. You just have to think about it in a different way.” A lot of archaeologists thought I was nuts, stating that archaeologists can’t study ancient nights and it is not possible to do so. And I said, “Well, I think it is. You have to try.” You have to use your imagination and creativity and think beyond the daytime. While many people didn’t answer my emails, fortunately others responded, “I get it, I get it. This is exciting!” I had a whole range of reactions.
I already had some of the data from my dissertation fieldwork in Honduras where I was allowed to report on excavations of eight small Classic Maya sites. Those excavations produced a lot of data, around 100,000 artifacts. We archaeologists have a lot of data. We don’t have to go out and excavate a new site. Use what you have and think about it from a new perspective, whether you’re talking about gender or you’re talking about the night or whatever it is you’re interested in.
Dr. Gonlin explaining basics of stone tool technology
When studying nighttime activities, what archaeological evidence do you look for?
I don’t look for anything in particular, but I look for ideas that are going to tell me something about how people lived 24/7. For example, if you excavate the remains of a house where an ancient Maya farming family lived, you’re going to come across lines of stone cobbles. The lines formed the foundation of the house. Sometimes the residents built a bench made out of stone which is nicely preserved. Think about that bench and consider how it was used. It was used during the day for people to work on and do projects. It was used during the night for people to sleep on. People did not sleep directly on stone benches though. Material you crafted, such as cotton cloth or processed animal pelts, made it softer to sleep on.
It’s the thinking of material evidence in a different way, just like when gender is included in the past. For example, many ascribe actions to men in the past. Well, what were women doing? They were doing a lot of things, but you have to think about them in order to picture them in the past. And the same for children; children in societies that are agrarian do a lot of work. In our society, we make our children go to school, don’t we? Otherwise your parents won’t be happy. Neither will the government. But in the past you had to help out on the farm, or you had to go hunting or fishing and contribute to the subsistence of the family. You had to do weaving and make some cloth so that you could clothe yourself or use it for material for the stone bench, for example. It’s not necessarily what you’re digging up. It’s thinking about the data you already have from a new viewpoint.
What is your thought process when you find data and how do you relate it to nighttime activities?
I’ll give you an example from the Maya Vase Database. This is a collection of photographs of Classic Maya vases. Some of the vessels were excavated carefully, some of them were/are in private collections, while others came from looted contexts. So there’s a wide range of contexts of artifacts. Let’s type in the search term “torch” in the database as I’m thinking about the night. How did the classic Maya light up the night? We know they used torches. The Maya vases on which torches are pictured on them will be shown. In one example, a person, presumably a ruler, is inside a building while attendants hold torches. The photographer, Justin Kerr, took photos of different sides of the vases and then rolled them out so that you could see the entire scene. And this particular vase (labeled K7516 or the Kerr number) tells me the events happened in the dark, and perhaps at night, because the participants needed torches to see.
K7516 in Maya Vase Database, comments read: while attendants hold torches, a ruler places his hand on a supplicants head. A bleeding prisoner is being beaten with stones. Please note rulers hair.
Torches are also carved in stone as on Lintel 24, a carving that was in Structure 23 at the site of Yaxchilan, Mexico. The ruler, King Shield Jaguar (translated to English) holds a torch while Lady Xoc, the queen, kneels. She is making an offering of blood to the deities on behalf of ancestors by taking a thorn-lined rope through her tongue. The blood drips down on the bark paper, and then the paper is burnt as an offering. This event probably took place at night, or minimally in the dark, which is why a lighting device was necessary.
Lintel 24 from Yaxchilan as seen in the British Museum
Nighttime in many cultures is considered to be sacred. It’s the best time to contact ancestors. The date recorded on the lintel is October 24, 709 CE. In this year on this date, the moon was more than 90% illuminated, meaning that moonlight was also a factor. It might have been a very propitious date for the king and the queen to offer blood to their ancestors. So, evidence through iconography and epigraphy definitely tells us something about the night and darkness. Night and darkness combined are investigated together. If we take the inscriptions literally, maybe the event happened at night, but maybe it happened in the dark, which is why torches are necessary.
Information about lighting devices is very helpful. There’s a whole field of study called lychnology which tells us something about how people lit up the night. For example, in Greece, you would be able to find oil lamps on ancient Greek sites, or in Italy, you would be able to find lamps that were used in households, such as those recovered at Pompeii.
Are there any unique excavation strategies or technologies you use to uncover nighttime related artifacts, and what role has technology played in artifact analysis, and how has it contributed to your research and findings?
There aren’t any specific techniques to excavate the night, but when you are excavating, you should be aware of human senses. Say, you’re excavating a building, think about how it feels to be in that building during the day and how it feels to be in that building at night. What would ancient people have experienced? Some of the buildings that are excavated are made primarily of stone, especially in ancient Rome, ancient Greece, ancient China, and ancient Mesoamerica as well. A stone building is going to be very dark inside, day or night. Sensory archaeology encourages being aware of and analyzing the senses of the past; the senses that the excavator is experiencing as they are uncovering material of the past can tell us something about the night as well. If you were on Bellevue College campus at night, it would feel very different than when you are here during the day. It’s a mind shift that archaeologists need to experience to think about the night. It’s not necessarily any difference in terms of strategies or technologies that we use to excavate the day that we use to find out about ancient nights.
The night can be studied from a comparative perspective, a hallmark of anthropology. Today, there are a lot of artifact databases that are available online. I can conduct research on all kinds of pottery that was excavated in many places around the world to compare the iconography. I can see if torches are featured in ancient China or ancient Greece.
I can also look at digital reconstructions in terms of generating 3D models. One researcher generated lighting scenarios for a house in Pompeii, Italy. What would the light have been during the day in a house in Pompeii? And then as the sun set, how would that light shift? How would lighting in that house change? Models to approximate how the passing hours of the day would feel or how the different seasons of the year would affect lighting can be designed.
Do you have any particularly memorable fieldwork experiences or research experiences? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
One particular experience I had was in Copan, Honduras, home to a Classic Maya kingdom. We were excavating a very small site, the cobblestone outline of the house. It measured about two meters by four meters, so it was a very small house where people lived. We were excavating along one wall, and we found half of a grinding stone and metate, and when we lifted it up, there were the remains of a teeny tiny baby that had been buried under the grinding stone. What struck me about uncovering this burial is that you just felt the emotion of the parents losing their baby and taking the care to bury this tiny little human right outside their house, which was common for Maya people to bury their dead either inside the house or outside the house. I felt very sad when I thought of someone losing their baby. You realize that you can feel some of the same emotions that people in the past felt, that you have a connection there and it’s something that connected me to the past.
One unique experience that I had is at the site of Joya de Cerén, El Salvador. This site consists of a small Maya community that was covered by volcanic ash, just like Pompeii. Adobe houses, all of the pottery vessels in their houses, the tools that they were using; all of these items were preserved just as the inhabitants left them. When the volcanic bomb hit, it did destroy some of the buildings, but most of them were still intact. Some of the buildings had their roofs catch on fire because they’re made of thatch. Since most of these structures were built from mud brick, they were preserved. When you visit the site, it is like going back over 1300 years in time. One of the chapters in my edited volume [Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World] talks about Copan, and it talks about Joya de Cerén and how people might have lived there during the nighttime and what they did. At Cerén, the vacuum spaces left by organic items, such as maize or manioc plants, were uncovered by careful excavation. Manioc is a root crop that was grown and lots of maize or corn was grown, both species planted in very neat rows. There’s a lot of organic material that can be recovered in an indirect way that normally would not be preserved. Using plaster to fill the vacuum allows us to “see” what existed (this same method is used at Pompeii where body casts of deceased people are recovered). These methods were a totally different way of excavating that I had not experienced up to that point. To see firsthand the amount of material evidence that you would normally be missing, say, on a tropical site, it was astounding. One can find out much about Joya de Cerén on the internet, and some films that were made about it as well.
Dr. Gonlin excavating at the site of Joya de Cerén, El Salvador
How does your fieldwork in Mesoamerican archaeology differ from work in other regions you’ve studied or excavated? Are there particular skills or methods that are especially important in Mesoamerican excavations?
Yes, one is the great quantity of materials people produced in Mesoamerica, especially stone tools and pottery. Those are the two most common types of artifacts that you’re going to find. When I did CRM work in Pennsylvania, the deposits were secondary deposits, rather than primary ones. We were excavating the location where a bridge was going to be constructed, and we had to excavate the riverbank and save whatever we could before the construction started. This location wasn’t a site where people lived. The artifacts were washed in from other areas, but certainly pertaining to the area. The materials dated to the end of the Woodland Period, around a thousand years ago. CRM excavation is very different because the goals of the excavation are different. There is a certain amount of time to excavate a certain amount of information. That’s a different excavation constraint than some of the excavations in which I took part in in Honduras, where we had a longer time period and we could do soil samples and we could excavate at a slower pace.
The site of Ozette on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington is one that was covered by a mudslide about 300+ years ago, and it belongs to the Makah people. The Makah people, along with professional archaeologists, excavated there, using wet site methods. The mud is so thick and encompasses the artifacts. You can’t excavate such a site in a normal way as you have to keep everything wet. The mud is what helped preserve a lot of the organic artifacts. There’s a museum on the Olympic Peninsula you can visit called the Makah Cultural and Research Center. It is absolutely incredible. There is a digital tour that you can go on to see what was found in this wet site excavation. I recommend a virtual tour of this site and then going to the museum.
When you’re excavating, how would you coordinate with communities who are living there at the time to ensure respectful excavation?
Communication is an essential part. First of all, you need the permission of the government. Before excavating in Honduras, the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, a department of the Honduran government, needs to be contacted and their approval is essential. Next, officials in the state where you want to conduct archaeology should be contacted. And ultimately, you must get permission from local people. Can you imagine if you’re sitting on your deck and you see somebody walking through your backyard with some equipment and taking notes and photos? It would be very unsettling. You always work with local people. Town meetings for anybody to come and ask questions are a good strategy. You ask locals what is important to them and receive input on what they would like to see or what they don’t want you to do. You must respect local people and their wishes. It doesn’t matter what lofty scientific goals you might have. Their respect is most important. Formal and informal meetings are necessary, publications should be accessible, and you make sure that they are involved in the process from the beginning so that they understand the work that you’re doing. You train people who are interested; some may want to have jobs in archaeology or they may want to contribute to the project. People are paid for their time and effort.
And has your research on Mesoamerican household structures and social dynamics shifted your perspective on modern day social structures in any way?
It does. I really think like an archaeologist in my own house. On a micro-level, think of the people in your own house and how they use a variety of tools at varied times of the day. They may organize things differently from the way you do, and all of this reveals something about them. For example, for various kinds of cuisines there can be special kinds of equipment. So if somebody would come to my house and dig it up, they would see that one side of the kitchen cabinets has spices and vessels that differ from the other side. Some of these artifacts would survive through time, perhaps the metal and ceramic cooking vessels. You could do residue analysis and see what was cooked in them. You could compare the remains found in one house to those found in another house in the same neighborhood. Perhaps people with different backgrounds lived in the area. As an archaeologist, I’m aware of my own house. When I go to somebody else’s house, I love to observe to see what kinds of artifacts they have in their house and what it conveys about them.
Larger questions about social organization can be answered from examining the past. Households are flexible social units. In the United States today, just as in the past, there is much variation in the form and function. By knowing something about past social organization, it can be compared to present-day organization and changes can be documented that have occurred and explanations put forth as to why. The change in numbers of multigenerational families reveals something about a society and how it functions. So I do use what I learned in the past to apply to today, and vice versa.
How do you hope your work will contribute to the public, to the public understanding of human history?
Mostly through the excavation of the common everyday lives of people and then second, the preservation of the night. The night that you and I experience is so drastically different from the nights that people in the past experienced. Have you ever seen, for example, the Milky Way? No, and most of my students haven’t either. It’s a shame because these are celestial phenomena that have shaped humans for eons, and yet we’re getting removed from those. I don’t know how you feel when you look up at the stars, but it grounds you. If you have problems or you’re dealing with something, it puts it in perspective. If you can see a night full of stars, you think about bigger things.
In terms of preserving dark nights, that’s super important, which is why I am a member of the DarkSky International. Anyone can join, and this organization advocates for dark nights. My students do assignments about the night. Such a perspective makes you think about daily and nightly life and what these time periods were like in the past. We consider how the overabundance of lighting that we use today negatively affects people, and all other species. I hope through my own small part and educating my students about DarkSky International and the dangers of illuminated nights that more people are becoming aware of preserving dark nights and reducing light consumption. My contributions to the archaeology of the night focus on that aspect, and it brings it into the present where you can do something about it. You don’t have to have lights on all night long in your neighborhood. Some lights can be used with sensors or timers. There is a misconception that more light increases safety; it does not. There is much to explore on the DarkSky International website that has inspired me; I’ve taken some ideas to implement in my own classes.
In what ways can archaeology, particularly research into the nighttime activities of ancient societies, inform how we address modern issues such as light pollution and its impact on our relationship with the night?
Light pollution affects all species on the planet, period. Whether you are a sea turtle trying to find the beach to lay eggs, or whether you are a mosquito trying to bite somebody, light affects every creature on this earth. If you look at what we don’t think about on a daily basis, we don’t think about light because we take it for granted. We’re spending billions of dollars on over-lighting, and that use of energy adds to greenhouse gases and climate change. You don’t have to be an archaeologist to know. I look at the night because the nights in the past were very different. The nights in the past were time periods where people got together instead of turning on streaming devices or their screen on their phone or just scrolling all by themselves. It used to be the hearth that people would gather around after working all day. I’m not saying that everything was great in the past. It wasn’t. There were a lot of challenges to living without electricity. I don’t want to have to use a torch in the middle of the night; I’m spoiled and I prefer simply flipping a switch to see in the dark. We do need to become more aware of our own actions as human beings. One of the most important things about archaeology is that we can see what happens in the past, and we can see where we are going as well.
And as a member of the editorial board of Ancient Mesoamerica, how do you see the field of archaeology of the night continue to evolve and what emerging research trends are you most excited about?
I am very excited about sensory archaeology because this contextualizes the archaeology of the night. It puts it in a broader perspective of looking at the night through the emotional dimensions of the past. These perspectives are difficult to research. It’s not inaccessible, but you have to think creatively. Though I am a scientist who wants to see data based on facts and observations, you can go only so far with evidence, then use your imagination and creativity that is based on those facts and data to make the past come alive. As a board member of Ancient Mesoamerica, I try to encourage people to publish their work, especially if it involves areas of Mesoamerica that are not as thoroughly researched as other areas. You’ll find a lot of material on the Classic Mayas and the Mexica (Aztecs). But there were many other ways of life, hundreds of other groups of people in Mesoamerica who lived in the past and have descendants who are alive in the present. Today, we also need to look at community archaeology and how that affects the people whose ancestors we are studying. Archaeology has changed drastically in the past few decades as it has become more community oriented and it’s more creative than ever.
What advice would you give to students interested in archaeology?
Don’t get into anything you’re not excited about. First and foremost, if you have a great interest in [archaeology], that’s an excellent way to go. It is advantageous to get a wide range of experience. Most archaeology happens in a CRM context; most archaeologists are not associated with a college or university. I am very fortunate to have a job [at Bellevue College]. If you do work in a college or university, then you should have your students be aware of organizations that they can join, such as the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) or the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). There is a student section of the SAA that you can join with prices that are much more affordable for students, so I would recommend doing that as well as checking into the AIA member prices for students. You can attend professional meetings, go on digs, and it is really helpful to participate in a field school. There are numerous kinds of excavations, and sometimes there is a person who greatly influences you. I was fortunate to have excellent mentors. Meet with professionals, such as myself; I am happy to meet with students like you. By asking professionals what it’s like to be an archaeologist you can gain insights. I recommend taking courses in various disciplines. I took geology and history. I took Spanish because I thought I might work in Mexico and I have, which has been very helpful. I took psychology and sociology to be exposed to other social sciences. Take related disciplines, whether you are an undergraduate or in high school, and don’t get centered on just one thing right away. See what excites you most and examine what you are good at doing. Not everybody makes a good archaeologist. Some of it is really boring work and you have to be very patient and detail oriented. For example, there are over 100,000 artifacts in the database from my dissertation; each one had to be counted and cataloged. Much time was spent in the lab after excavation took place. You have to have some attributes that are good for doing lab work and field work. And you should enjoy the work that you are doing.
A heartfelt thank you to Dr. Nancy Gonlin for taking the time to share her insights and experiences. I truly appreciate her encouragement and support for students and young archaeologists as they begin their journey in the field. Her passion for archaeology and dedication to the discipline are truly inspiring. It was a privilege to learn from her, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share her work with others.
Related Resources:
The book Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World co-edited by Dr. Gonlin and Dr. April Nowell, referenced during the interview, can be purchased here: https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/3227-archaeology-of-the-night
The Maya Vase Database, an online database of rollout photographs of Maya vessels, discussed by Dr. Gonlin is accessible here: https://www.mayavase.com/
The Makah Museum, located in Neah Bay, Washington, mentioned by Dr. Gonlin: https://makahmuseum.com/visiting/exhibits/
Dr. Gonlin is a member of Dark Sky International, which works to restore the nighttime environment and protect communities from the harmful effects of light pollution. If you are interested in joining or learning more, visit their website here: https://darksky.org/
Dr. Gonlin is a member of the Ancient Mesoamerica editorial board, read the journal here: https://journals.scholarsportal.info/browse/09565361
If you are interested in learning more about the Society for American Archaeology, the website is accessible here: https://www.saa.org/
The Archaeological Institute of America publishes the popular journal Archaeology magazine. The AIA website is here: https://www.archaeological.org/
Dr. Gonlin’s Night Archaeology Media, Publications, & Presentations (as of March 2025):
Media
Gonlin, Nancy, April Nowell, and Jane Baxter. 2024. Webinar. “Nights of Yore: Life After Dark in the Ancient World.” 24HourNation. April 3.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2023. “Episode 100: Nightways.” Podcast. The Nocturne Podcast with Vanessa Lowe. May 23.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2023. “Episode 47: The Night Life.” Podcast. Archaeology after Dark with Daniel Rhodes, Alabama Archaeological Society. April 12.
Gonlin, Nancy and Meghan E. Strong. 2023. Podcast. “After Dark.” National Park Service with Catherine Cooper. April 27.
Gonlin, Nancy, and Meghan E. Strong. 2022. Podcast. “Episode 186: Archaeology After Dark.” Archaeology Podcast Network with Chris Webster and Rachel Roden. August 27.
Gonlin, Nancy with Michele Edwards. 2022. TV show. “Ancient Civilizations at Night” on TV program: “Did You Know?” Bellevue College TV Channel 28. Filmed 17 Nov 2022; aired 9 Jan 2024. Available: https://www.collegechannel.tv/didyouknow/.
Gonlin, Nancy with Nick Dunn and Tim Edensor (editors) and April Nowell and other authors. 2020. Panelist. Routledge Press: Rethinking Darkness book launch. December 10.
Gonlin, Nancy, and April Nowell. 2018. Podcast. “Episode 35: Archaeology of the Night.” Archaeology Podcast Network with Chris Webster. February 10.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2017. TEDx Talk. “Life After Dark in the Ancient World.” Bellevue College. April 4.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2016. Blog. “Archaeology of the Night” for University Press of Colorado. February 2.
Popular Articles
Gonlin, Nancy. 2025. Die Maya Bei Nacht. Antike Welt. Marsch:49-59.
Gonlin, Nancy and April Nowell. 2024. Archaeologists Explore Life After Dark in the Ancient Night. Atlas Obscura. October 7, 2024.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2023. Ancient Maya Nights. Anthropology News website, January 5, 2023.
Gonlin, Nancy and April Nowell. 2018. What the Archaeology of Night Reveals. SAPIENS.
Featured in: Zorich, Zach. 2021. Life After Dark. American Archaeology 25(2):12-19.
Edited Volumes
Gonlin, Nancy, and Meghan E. Strong, eds. 2022. After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape and Lightscape of Ancient Cities. Louisville: University Press of Colorado.
Gonlin, Nancy, and David M. Reed, eds. 2021. Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica. Louisville: University Press of Colorado.
Gonlin, Nancy, and April Nowell, eds. 2018. Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. (also available in Mandarin)
Book Chapters
Gonlin, Nancy. 2022. Preface. In After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape and Lightscape of Ancient Cities, pp. xv-xvi. University Press of Colorado, Lewisville.
Gonlin, Nancy and Meghan E. Strong. 2022. City Nights: Archaeology of Night, Darkness, and Luminosity in Ancient Urban Environments. In After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape and Lightscape of Ancient Cities, pp. 3-32. University Press of Colorado, Lewisville.
Gonlin, Nancy and Christine C. Dixon. 2021. Illuminating Darkness in the Ancient Maya World: Nocturnal Case Studies from Copan, Honduras and Joya de Cerén, El Salvador. In Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Nancy Gonlin and David M. Reed, pp. 103-140. University Press of Colorado, Lewisville.
Kristin V. Landau, Christopher Hernandez, and Nancy Gonlin. 2022. Lunar Power in Ancient Maya Cities. In After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape and Lightscape of Ancient Cities, pp. 125-152. University Press of Colorado, Lewisville.
Gonlin, Nancy and David M. Reed. 2021. Preface. In In Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Nancy Gonlin and David M. Reed, pp. xv-xvii. University Press of Colorado, Lewisville.
Reed, David M., and Nancy Gonlin. 2021. Introduction to Night and Darkness in Ancient Mexico and Central America. In Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Nancy Gonlin and David M. Reed, pp. 3-38. University Press of Colorado, Lewisville.
Nowell, April, and Nancy Gonlin. 2021. Affordances of the Night: Work after Dark in the Ancient World. In Rethinking Darkness: Cultures, Histories, Practices, edited by Nick Dunn and Tim Edensor, 27-37. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2020. Household Archaeology of the Classic Period Lowland Maya. In The Maya World, edited by Traci Ardren and Scott R. Hutson, 389-406. New York: Routledge.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2018. Preface. In Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World, edited by Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell, pp. xxix-xxx. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Gonlin, Nancy and Christine C. Dixon. 2018. Classic Maya Nights at Copan, Honduras and El Cerén, El Salvador. In Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World, edited by Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell, pp. 45-76. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Gonlin, Nancy and April Nowell. 2018. Introduction to the Archaeology of the Night. In Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World, edited by Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell, 5-26. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Conference Proceedings
Gonlin, Nancy, 2025. La economía domestica de la noche: Aproximaciones desde Mesoamérica. In Economías domésticas: Perspectivas desde el pasado, en el presente y hacia el futuro, edited by Blanca Maldonado Álvarez, Joshua D. Engelhardt, and Rodrigo Esparza López. La Piedad: El Colegio de Michoacán, A.C. In press.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2022. Anthropology’s Contribution to a Night Studies’ Agenda. In Proceedings: III International Conference on Night Studies, edited by Manuel Ruiz-Garcia and Jordi Nofre. Lisboa: ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2021. Dangers in the Night: Archaeological Case Studies of the Ancient Mayas of Mesoamerica. In Proceedings: II International Conference on Night Studies, edited by Manuel Ruiz-Garcia and Jordi Nofre, 170-191. Lisboa: ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2020. Urban Nightscapes of the Late Classic Maya of Mesoamerica. In Proceedings: I International Conference on Night Studies, edited by Manuel Garcia-Ruiz and Jordi Nofre, 166-183. Lisboa: ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa.
Gonlin, Nancy, and April Nowell. 2020. Life After Dark in the Cities of the Ancient World. In Proceedings: I International Conference on Night Studies, ed. Manuel Garcia-Ruiz and Jordi Nofre, 61-74. Lisboa: ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa.
Presentations from Conferences and Institutions
Gonlin, Nancy. 2025. The Nocturnal Household Economy & Crafting After Dark in Mesoamerica: A Tribute to Ken Hirth. Paper for Session: “Crafting a Legacy in Archaeology: Papers Celebrating the Career of Ken Hirth.” Paper to be presented at the 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, April 23-27.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2024. Planning, Practicality, and Performances of Nocturnal Performances: Archaeological Case Studies from Mesoamerica’s Past. Paper presented at the 5th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Night Studies, Lisbon, Portugal, October 9-11.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2023. Houses at Night: A Household Archaeology Perspective on Public, Private, Light, and Night in Ancient Mesoamerica. Paper presented at the 4th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Night Studies, Lisbon, Portugal, October 11-13.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2023. Bellevue College, Academic Affairs Colloquium. Ancient Nights, Modern Nights: A View from Anthropology. November 15.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2022. Teaching and Learning the Unsettled Landscape of Night in Anthropology. Paper for invited session: “Teaching Strategies Across the Five Fields,” sponsored by the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges. Presented at the 121st Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Seattle, WA. November 9-13.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2021. University of Victoria, Canada, Graduate Colloquium, Department of Anthropology. Light and Night in the Ancient Maya World of Mesoamerica. February 8.
Gonlin, Nancy and Meghan E. Strong. 2019. City Nights: Archaeology of Night, Darkness, and Luminosity in Urban Environments. Paper for Session: “After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities.” Paper presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM, April 10-14.
Landau, Kristin, Christopher Hernandez, and Nancy Gonlin. 2019. Lunar Power in Ancient Maya Cities. Paper presented for Session: “After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities.” 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM, April 10-14.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2018. Bellevue College. Night & Darkness in the Past & Present. Earth Week, April 25.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2018. Classic Maya Nights. The Pennsylvania State University, Mesoamerican Interest Group, Department of Anthropology, University Park. October 18.
Gonlin, Nancy. 2017. La Arqueología de la Noche. Presentation for the Jornadas Permanentes de Arqueología. Departamento de Arqueología, El Salvador. San Salvador, El Salvador. October 5.
Gonlin, Nancy and Christine C. Dixon. 2017. Illuminosity in the Ancient Maya World. Paper for Session: “Night and Darkness in Pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America.” Paper presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, BC, March 29-April 2.
Reed, David M., W. Scott Zeleznik, and Nancy Gonlin. 2017. Nighttime Food of the Ancient Maya. Paper for Session: “Night and Darkness in Pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America.” Paper presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, BC, March 29-April 2.
Nowell, April and Nancy Gonlin. 2016. Archaeology of the Night: An Introduction. Paper for Session: “Archaeology of the Night.” Paper presented at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, April 6-10.
Gonlin, Nancy and Christine Dixon. 2016. Midnight Madness in Mesoamerica: Dark Doings in the Ancient World. Paper for Session: “Archaeology of the Night.” Paper presented at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, April 6-10.
Gonlin, Nancy and Christine Dixon. 2015. An Introduction to Nightly Practices with Illustration from Mesoamerica. Paper for Session: “From Dusk to Dawn: Nightly Practices in the Ancient World.” Paper presented at the 114th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Denver, November 16-20.
