Mercer Archives revealed a new, ancient lamp exhibit through their “Let There Be Light” event on Thursday, Oct. 23. Hosted in Tarver Library, the exhibit featured 48 out of the 317 ancient oil lamps in the Holmes Holy Land Ancient Artifact Collection.
The Archives, Special Collections and Digital Initiatives department of Tarver Library collects and stores historical papers, artifacts and periodicals related to Mercer University’s history and the people with whom the University has worked. The materials gathered are available for students and researchers to use.
Daniel Williams, director of the Archives and an organizer of the event, and Haley-Marie Chin-A-Young, reference and outreach archivist for the University, explained why students should study ancient artifacts. Some lamps in the collection were created during the Eastern Middle Bronze Age of 2100 to 1550 B.C.
“[Past culture] is such a part of our identity and our culture,” Williams said. He believes having the ability to touch and handle the past gives students insight into who they are.
“I think it’s important to study history to learn where we came from and how we got here,” Chin-A-Young added.
She explained that Mercer places emphasis on students learning about the University's past, and that the archives are a source for students to inform themselves.
Yulssus Holmes, the owner of the collection, began his fascination with ancient history when he was in fourth grade with the pyramids, which guided him to study ancient history and linguistics in college. He grew to desire creating his own collection after working with Marc Lovelace, one of Holmes’ religion professors. In fact, the first artifacts from the collection came from Lovelace, and from there, the total number of relics grew to around 1,000, Holmes said.
Scott Nash, who has worked as a religion professor at Mercer University and is a curator for the exhibit, explained how he attempted to convince Holmes to sell the collection to Mercer. Instead, Holmes gifted it to the University.
“I wanted the collection to stay together. I didn’t want it to be sold and split up,” Holmes said. He expressed wanting to leave a collection for students in Middle and south Georgia. People in Atlanta, he said, have access to Emory University’s archives while those outside of metro Atlanta are left with “nothing.”
As part of the event on Thursday, Nash gave a lecture on the opening of the Gospel of John and its connection to light. He spoke about how the theme of light and darkness is prominent within John as it puts together the idea of life and light.
When organizing the event, Provost of University Libraries Jeffery Waldrop believed it would be nice to have a biblical aspect to the exhibit because the library hasn’t done that in years.
“The first thing God says in the whole bible is, ‘Let there be light,’” Nash said. “It was just a natural connection [to the lamps].”
Janelle Johnson, Associate Professor of Religion, said it took some convincing from Nash to have her speak since she has a heavy workload. He knew she had done a lecture on Genesis and how the book relates to ancient Israeli culture.
Clifford Alford ‘28 said he enjoyed the event overall and liked seeing the exhibit unveiled. He was interested in how different the oil lamps look in comparison to the oil lamps humans use today.
Elizabeth Holmes, wife of Yulssus, said she enjoyed being the stars of the evening. She emphasized how she could relate to the lecture as she is from Palestine. The oil lamps will be displayed for the next two years.
