There is a dimension of the ancient mining story that archaeology can approach but not fully recover: the human psychological experience of spending hours underground in near-total darkness, miles from the nearest sunlight, in a cold and silent environment where every sound was amplified and every movement required deliberate attention.

Modern researchers who have attempted experimental archaeology inside Mammoth Cave — following ancient routes using cane torches rather than modern lights — have written about the experience in terms that go beyond the merely physical.

The darkness that exists beyond the range of a cane torch’s light is not simply an inconvenience or a navigational challenge.

It is a presence, a wall of blackness that presses against the edges of the small illuminated world the torch creates.

Moving through that darkness — even with a torch, especially with a torch whose light illuminates only the immediate environment and leaves everything beyond in absolute shadow — produces specific psychological effects.