The Imagined Sky; Cultural Perspectives; Darrelyn Gunzburg

Edited by

Darrelyn Gunzburg [+–]

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Darrelyn Gunzburg teaches in the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

The sky forms fifty percent of our visual world and has a voice across cultures. This complex sky-voice contains great diversity and is informed by human images, dreams, and aspirations. The inherent nature of this sky-voice is transmitted from one generation to another through text, image, oral tradition, physical mapping, and painted description.

This volume is written by some of the most noted scholars in their fields of British history, history of art, social anthropology, Greek horoscopes and narratology, globe cartography, comets and Irish mythology, western astronomy, Australian aboriginal sky astronomy and mythology, and cultural astronomy and astrology. These scholars acknowledge the presence of such a voice, in the sky’s movement mirrored in the archoeastronomy of British prehistory, the apocalyptic myths of comets and meteors, the sky cartography reflected in European globes and frescoes, the Australian aboriginal sky myths, the issue of disappearing dark skies, and in contemporary reflections on the sky. It recognises that sky imagery has persisted in similar forms since its potential roots in the Palaeolithic period.

These eleven essays offer critical engagement in understanding the sky in human imagination and culture and contribute to the new fields of cultural astronomy and skyscapes emerging within the academy.

Preliminaries

Acknowledgments [+–] vii

Darrelyn Gunzburg FREE

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Darrelyn Gunzburg teaches in the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

The sky has a voice in all cultures. This voice is complex and contains great diversity in both time as well as space. It carries conversations within cultures on religion, science, and mythology, as well as considerations of human images, dreams, and aspirations. These streams of knowledge are transmitted from one generation to another by text, image, oral tradition, physical mapping, and painted description through which today we can recognise similarities and differences between cultural and intellectual contexts. This volume, a collection of essays, written by some of the most noted scholars in their fields, represents an array of approaches to the sky, from the Sun’s movement mirrored by the pilgrimage routes of Neolithic Britons around Stonehenge, through sky cartography reflected in European frescoes, to a contemporary recognition of sky imagery that has continued to persist in various forms since its potential roots in the Palaeolithic period.

Introduction [+–] ix-xvii

Darrelyn Gunzburg FREE

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Darrelyn Gunzburg teaches in the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

The Strange History of British Archaeoastronomy [+–] 1-22

Ronald Hutton £17.50

University of Bristol

Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is a leading authority on the history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs. He is also the leading historian of the ritual year in Britain and of modern paganism. His paper The Strange History of British Archaeoastronomy was published in 2014 in the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.

Between 1965 and 1985, British archaeologists found themselves obliged to study the skies as well as the evidence beneath the earth. The sciences of astronomy, mathematics, and statistics bore down on the study of prehistoric monuments as never before, and a series of impressive books and conferences explored the alignments and proportions of ancient ceremonial sites. A quarter of a century later, all this excitement has arguably evaporated. The four different disciplines have largely separated again, and prehistory has been handed back to the excavators. These developments can be characterised as the result of a series of complex relationships between established experts in British prehistory, academic scholars from other disciplines, and members of a radical counter-culture. Archaeoastronomy became presented as a challenge to the credentials of the established experts, and the apparent lack of absolute proof to its conclusions enabled them to reject it wholesale. In Britain it has effectively been handed over to the counter-culture in which it is retained as a tradition.

Comets and Meteors: The Ignored Explanations for Myths and the Apocalypse [+–] 23-43

Patrick McCafferty £17.50

Universität Leipzig

In their attempts to understand the origins of humanity’s corpus of otherworldly tales, scholars of mythology have recognised deities of the sun, moon, planets and stars. Comets and meteors have been largely ignored, however, despite their importance in human culture, their obvious parallels with many aspects of myths, and their known physical effects. Of all the celestial bodies, comets and meteors have the greatest ability to inspire the imagination, leaving us with myths of monsters and dragons, of thunderbolt-throwing deities, of fallen angels wielding swords of light, and of battles between forces of good and evil in the heavens. Comets and meteors are clearly important contributors to the development of mythology (the Cometary Paradigm). When we consider myths in the light of the Cometary Paradigm, important conclusions are reached about the role of comets and meteors in human culture, the value of mythology to modern society, the origins of apocalyptic fears, and humanity’s role on this planet.

Imagery and Narrative in an Ancient Horoscope: P.Lond. 130 (Greek Horoscopes No. 81) [+–] 44-54

Roger Beck £17.50

University of Toronto

Roger Beck, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto, is among the world’s foremost authorities on such ancient Roman mystery cults as Mithraism.

In a Greek papyrus horoscope from the first century CE, highly elaborate descriptions of planetary journeyings have replaced the usual matter-of- fact listing of celestial longitudes. An analysis of the horoscope’s language and narrative form demonstrates how ancient astrologers understood the stars and planets as agents that communicate by their appearances, configurations, and motions.

Reflections on the Farnese Atlas: Exploring the Scientific, Literary and Pictorial Antecedents of the Constellations on a Graeco-Roman Globe [+–] 55-86

Kristen Lippincott £17.50

The Exhibitions Team. London

View Website

In exploring the figures of the constellations on the celestial globe held by the so-called ‘Farnese Atlas’, this article reflects upon Ptolemy’s comment that ‘…in many cases our descriptions [of the constellations] are different because they seem to be more natural and to give a better proportioned outline to the figures described’ (Syntaxis Mathematica/ Almagest VII, 4). It suggests that, whereas most scholars writing on the history of constellation imagery tend to focus on two areas to support their findings—scientific data gleaned from early descriptions and depictions of the stars and iconographical details derived from Graeco-Roman mythology—more attention should be paid to the largely independent pictorial tradition that also helped to shape the heavens. By examining a wide range of visual sources, such as Greek vase painting, coins and sculptural reliefs, one can conclude that, in many cases, the role of the artist is neither as an inventor nor as a scientific draughtsman, but as a torch-bearer for the continuity of a specific set of widely accepted pictorial formulae. Working from this, I tentatively propose a new avenue of exploration for the mysterious grid-like figure on the Farnese Globe, often misidentified as the ‘Throne of Caesar’.

Giotto’s Sky: The Fresco Paintings of the First Floor Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy [+–] 87-113

Darrelyn Gunzburg £17.50

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Darrelyn Gunzburg teaches in the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

Giotto’s frescos in the Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, were painted across three registers. The upper register contains celestial astronomical imagery that few scholars have been able fully to understand. Using two sections of this upper register as case studies, I reconstructed the skies over Padua in the medieval period using astronomical and astrological software, together with the knowledge of poetic astronomy and naked eye astronomy. This approach showed that, rather than being simple decorations, these images are instead reflective of the constellations that dictated the seasons and the cycle of the year as seen over Padua c. 1309. Further- more, they reveal a night sky that was populated with a constellational iconography that, I argue, was part of an ensouled cosmology.

Astrology as a Social Framework: The ‘Children of Planets’, 1400–1600 [+–] 114-141

Geoffrey Shamos £17.50

RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Denver

During the Early Modern period, many believed that the seven planets— Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon—affected the course of terrestrial events and determined the temperament, complexion, profession, and even the manner of death of individuals. Such concepts were depicted by artists in a series of images commonly referred to as the ‘Children of the Planets’. By merging scientific knowledge and popular imagery, the convention helped to shape the contemporary understanding of the cosmos. Astrology is often described in terms of the correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm or the universe and the individual, but by linking diverse individuals according to mutual planetary affiliations, the ‘Children of the Planets’ also offered a system for categorizing corporate identity and defining social relations.

Mapping the Heavens: The Ceiling of the Sala Bologna in the Vatican Palace [+–] 142-162

Emily A. Urban £17.50

Independent Scholar

Commissioned in 1575 by Pope Gregory XIII, the Sala Bologna, a small dining room located in the Vatican Palace, represents a monumental expression of Renaissance artistic and scientific achievement. Frescoed on the ceiling is an extraordinary vision of the heavens that is complemented by three maps of Bologna painted on the walls. In contrast to similarly themed decoration, this ceiling does not depict the horoscope of its patron, but instead presents a cartographically accurate rendition of the entire universe. Through an interpretation of the painted iconography, as well as an examination of the tradition of celestial frescoes, I demonstrate that this ceiling is remarkable not only for its cartographic accuracy, but for its representation of Renaissance astronomy. Moreover, by looking at con- temporary artistic theory and scientific advancement, I argue that this fresco gives visual expression to the goals and aspirations of the Boncompagni pope who sought to use empirical inquiry as an ideological tool of the Counter Reformation.

Cosmos, Culture and Landscape: Documenting, Learning and Sharing Australian Aboriginal Astronomical Knowledge in Contemporary Society [+–] 163-190

John Goldsmith £17.50

Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy

The Cosmos Culture and Landscape project investigated two contemporary examples of Western Australian Aboriginal astronomical knowledge and cultural beliefs. Radio astronomers from the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project in the Murchison Region, and local Aboriginal communities were brought together in a collaborative endeavour, so that both groups could share their respective knowledge of the night sky. Aboriginal perspectives were examined of the 300,000+ year old Wolfe Creek Crater in the East Kimberley region. In-depth video interviews documented Aboriginal knowledge and extensive digital imaging (360° and timelapse) of key locations were used to record landscapes. New resources were developed (a video exhibit and virtual tour) and successfully applied to encourage learning and appreciation of Australian Aboriginal sky knowledge. Readers are respectfully advised that this chapter contains the image and names of Aboriginal people who have passed away.

At Night’s End [+–] 191-214

Tyler Nordgren £17.50

University of Redlands/International Dark-Sky Association

The light of the Milky Way in a dark night sky has been a common sight for all of human history. In the last one hundred years, astronomical research has revealed the position, past and future, of the earth and sun within that band of stars. Unfortunately, during that same time, urban lighting has rendered the Milky Way invisible to a growing fraction of the world’s population. In addition, many of the observatories that contributed to our understanding of our place in the Universe are threatened, if not rendered obsolete by these same city lights. This chapter considers how a number of local, city, and state governments in cooperation with organizations like the International Dark-Sky Association and the United States National Park Service are working to preserve the remaining dark, starry locations for the benefit of science, wildlife, natural resource conservation, economic considerations, and the health benefits and general aesthetic enjoyment of humanity.

Reach for the Stars! Light, Vision and the Atmosphere [+–] 215-233

Tim Ingold £17.50

University of Aberdeen

Tim Ingold is currently Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork among Saami and Finnish people in Lapland, and has written on comparative questions of environment, technology and social organisation in the circumpolar North, on the role of animals in human society, and on human ecology and evolutionary theory in anthropology, biology and history. More recently,he has explored the links between environmental perception and skilled practice. Ingold is currently writing and teaching on issues on the interface between anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. His latest book, Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture (Routledge),was published in 2013.

What is the sky? I begin by comparing the answers that psychologist James Gibson and philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty give to this question. For Gibson, light delivers objects to our perception, but is not visible as such. Yet if there were no more to the sky than its luminosity, then the sky itself would be invisible, leaving no difference between day and night. Drawing on the example of van Gogh’s painting, Starry Night, I show how light is understood by Merleau-Ponty not as radiant energy but as the experiential consequence of a fission/reaction that unites us with the cosmos even as it divides us from ourselves. Light, in other words, is a phenomenon of the atmosphere, brought about through the conflation of the cosmic with the affective. As a space of inhalation and exhalation, we alternately breathe in the atmosphere (fusion) and breathe it out (fission). I relate this alternation to one between line and colour, showing how colour lends atmosphere to the line, and how line gives colour to the atmosphere. I conclude that this alternation is fundamental to sentient life.

Images in the Heavens: A Cultural Landscape [+–] 234-258

Bernadette Brady £17.50

University of Wales Trinity St David

Bernadette Brady has a PhD in Anthropology (2012) and MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology (2005). She is currently a tutor in the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture (University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK). Her archaeoastronomical work is focused in the cultural influence of stars, the role of star phases and the cultural history of the constellations. Her publications include her work on the linking of the Egyptian Ascension mythologyof the Pyramid Texts with the phases of the stars (CRE XII proceedings, Oxbow 2012), the arguing for the use of star lines in the megalithic period (SEAC 2011 proceedings, BAR forthcoming), the cultural implications of the persistence of the shape of constellations (Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 7(1) 2013) and the ethnographical/astrological work on the Star of Bethlehem (SEAC 2012 proceedings, Slovene Anthropological Society 2013).

The constellation images with their historically persistent nature and adaptability fulfil many contemporary definitions of culture. From the earliest Elamite seals of the fourth millennium to the list-maps in the first century CE through Ptolemy’s Almagest, the constellation images became established in Western cultures. With the invention of printing and the age of the great star atlases from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the constellation images continued to display cultural resistance by cartographers to Gothicise, Christianise, politicise, or simply remove them. This resilience has shown that the constellation images are in fact a living gallery of human history with images ranging from the Palaeolithic to the modern world. Furthermore, with their acceptance across a diversity of people and nations, the constellation images today have come to represent a form of world culture, in that they constitute a culture of humanity that is not linked by tribes, clans, nations, religions, or languages.

End Matter

Index [+–] 259-267

Darrelyn Gunzburg FREE

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Darrelyn Gunzburg teaches in the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

The sky forms fifty percent of our visual world and as such has a voice across cultures. This sky-voice is informed by human images, dreams, and aspirations and thus is complex and contains great diversity. The inherent nature of this sky-voice is transmitted from one generation to another through text, image, oral tradition, physical mapping, and painted description. This volume, written by some of the most noted scholars in their fields, acknowledges the presence of such a voice, from the sky’s movement mirrored in the archoeastronomy of British prehistory, the apocalyptic myths of comets and meteors, sky cartography reflected in European globes and frescoes, Australian aboriginal sky myths, the issue of disappearing dark skies, contemporary reflections on the sky, and the recognition that sky imagery has persisted in similar forms since its potential roots in the Palaeolithic period. These eleven essays offer critical engagement in understanding the sky in human imagination and culture and contribute to this new field emerging within the academy.

Reviews

This is a rich and varied collection of eleven essays dealing with the role of the sky in human imagination and culture. The disciplinary mix is wide, including history and history of art, classics, cartography and social anthropology. Collectively the authors make a compelling case for the importance of the sky and its interpretation in human cultures from the beginning of recorded history, and almost certainly well before that, to the present.
Journal of Skyscape Archaeology

.

Books and Journals in Humanities, Social Science and Performing Arts

The Imagined Sky

Cultural Perspectives

Darrelyn Gunzburg [+–]

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Table of Contents

Reviews

Related Journal

Related Interest

Search Equinox

Subjects