The torch light would have been warm and flickering — not the steady, reliable illumination of modern LED cave lights, but the variable, dancing light of burning organic material that must be tended and managed and that produces heat and smoke in addition to light.

In a narrow cave passage, smoke from a torch accumulates near the ceiling, and a torch-bearing cave explorer must manage the competing demands of holding the light at the right height, moving through the restriction, and maintaining awareness of where the smoke is going and whether it is being carried away by the cave’s air currents or accumulating in dangerous concentrations.

The ancient man managed all of this.

He brought his light deep into the mountain.