The sun, moon and stars have been a constant aid to human-kinds’ long journey to the present; shaping the world along the way. In the last half century increasing attempts have been made to get to the planets and the stars to seek new agendas. In my opinion however, our world needs much remedial work first prior to any future grandiose plans for space travel. At the beginning of human-kinds’ long journey, we find amongst zoomorphic prehistoric cave paintings depictions of constellations and lunar phases. Those long-ago artists mirrored their environment and the skies above them. This is no surprise, since to survive they had to have knowledge of the seasonal cycles, particularly as their food sources were not static. Prey animals were migratory, fish were seasonal, as were nuts and fruits, so knowledge through observation was needed for survival.
6,000 years ago, the Babylonians were avid celestial observers and erected towers for that purpose enabling them to map out the heavens which they recorded on clay tablets. This study of the cosmos was used to create calendars, much like the Egyptians and the Maya did. The knowledge acquired aided the organisation of planting and harvesting of crops and when to hold ceremonies. The Egyptians tracked the rising of the star Sirius which corresponded with the annual flooding of the Nile that was the lifeblood of their existence. China’s contributions to medicine, astronomy and metallurgy also included the development of the compass in the Han Dynasty in the 1st century. It was used initially to order and harmonise buildings, a practice which was sometimes known in Ancient China as feng shui. Compasses were later adapted for navigation in the 11th century Song dynasty and from that time spread westwards to become an important tool for navigators. These early civilisations accomplished these feats of knowledge by careful observation, record keeping, pattern recognition and basic mathematics. Their conclusions continued to be improved upon over the centuries.
In the British Isles we have two famous monuments, admired not just for their architecture, but their significance for recording winter and summer solstices. Without modern technology, these changes in the seasons were a source of reassurance, preparedness, inspiration for our ancestors. Newgrange in Ireland is a Neolithic complex built 5,500 years ago and it is older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt. Its main structure was initially a tomb for the cremated remains of important people, who probably designed it before their death. Its solstice aligned feature was possibly about reincarnation in the sense that they the “master diallers” had ascended into the heavens and every year assured the end of winter and the return of spring. It became an astronomically based religious site. A specially designed “roof box” allows the suns ray to light up a long internal passageway assuring the return of life and warmth after the shortest day of the year. Everywhere there are geometric carvings which have symbolic and ceremonial significance. Essentially the whole site is a massive work of art, solely based on cosmology.
Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England is probably the most famous megalithic monument in the world. Its design, like that of Newgrange, aligns with celestial events and solstices, and it is precisely orientated in line with the rising and setting of the sun during the summer and winter solstices. Recent research has unearthed an extraordinary beginning to this monument. For a few centuries it stood at Waun Fawr in Pembrokeshire constructed from the nearby blue stones of Preseli. It was later moved overland by sled to its current site by the Britons. It has been argued that a large, long exposed avenue of rock at Salisbury Plain, which was lit up by the sun and shone for a time during the winter solstice, initiated its rebuilding as the phenomenon was taken as a sign from the heavens. Perhaps the site being in a more central position provided cohesion for the many separated groups on mainland Britain. The bones of those ancient transporters, architects and builders reveal that they were from Wales. These two Neolithic sites prove that our ancestors sought to understand and celebrate the cosmos and be guided by it to alleviate the fears and uncertainties of their time. This is a testament to the perennial relationship between art and cosmology and humankind’s urge to explore the mysteries of the universe.
The beginning of science was reliant on the cosmos as observers in Mesopotamia, China, India, Egypt and Greece began to systematically observe, record and explain natural phenomena. The Babylonians created the earliest known astronomical records, in Egypt complex mathematics were used to construct the Pyramids and India made significant contributions to mathematics with the development of algebra and the decimal system. Greece is considered the birthplace of western science. The Greek philosopher Anaximander, 610 B.C. was the pioneer of modern cosmology and founder of astronomy. He dismissed mythological explanations in favour of mathematical models. He was the first to conceive of the earth as a sphere and his work has influenced groundbreaking
theories over the past 2000 years. The knowledge from the eastern world that included mathematics, medicine, optics and astronomy was brought by the scholars of the Islamic Golden Age from the 8th to the 13th century to Europe following the Muslim conquest of Spain. In the European Middle Ages all this knowledge was gathered and expanded upon, initially by monastic scholars. Later Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas paved the way for the Renaissance. The Renaissance itself made great strides in astronomy and physics. The scientific revolution of the 17th century saw a vast leap in scientific advancement that included, just to name a few of the pivotal discoveries of this era; Galileo’s telescopic observations of the heavens; Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and Newton’s laws of motion and universal gravitation.
For more than a thousand years the firmament, the sky above us, has underpinned human navigation. Such a reliance has shaped our history and continues to play an essential part in shaping our modern world. Ancient seafarers and explorers relied on celestial navigation guided by the positions and movements of heavenly bodies. In the northern hemisphere the North Star, or Polaris, was important to seafarers as it is fixed directly above the North Pole and mariners could determine their latitude by measuring its angle above the horizon. The Southern Cross constellation served a similar purpose in the southern hemisphere. Amongst the devices essential for navigation, were sun dials, astrolabes compasses, chronometers, sextants and star clocks, the latter could determine time during the night as the movement of stars across the sky provided a natural clock. Today we have accurate G.P.S. systems which also have a celestial connection as they rely on the constellation of satellites orbiting the earth; so, our modern world still relies on the heavens. The astrolabe is an astronomical instrument with a multitude of uses beginning in antiquity and continuing through into the Islamic Golden Age, European Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery. It identifies stars and planets, determines latitude on land and sea and even provides tide tables. For the Islamic world it had an important religious function as one could determine in which direction Mecca lay, note prayer times as well as the dates of religious observations such as Ramadan. One of the earliest was invented in Greece by Apollonius of Perga around 200 B.C.
The Polynesians embarked on long voyages around the vast, island dotted, Pacific. Their navigation techniques relied on a deep understanding of the natural world including the stars, winds, ocean currents and the movement of marine life, this knowledge was passed down through the generations and it is a remarkable example of human ingenuity. They had a deep understanding of the stars and their movements. As well as celestial bodies they observed the behaviour of waves, cloud formations and even the flight patterns of birds. They created stick charts made from twigs and shells to represent wave patterns and locations of islands. All this navigational knowledge was passed orally from one generation to the next. Their vessels were also “cosmically” designed for these long voyages as they were made with certain hull and sail features to ensure speed and stability; allowing them to populate most of the Pacific islands.
Thor Heyerdahl 1914-2002 is famous for his Kon-Tiki voyage of 1947. He had always been fascinated by the movements of peoples around the Pacific rim. The Kon-Tiki raft, made mainly of balsa wood, travelled 8000 kilometres from South America to the Tuamotu Islands The expedition was to demonstrate that the ancients could undertake long voyages; and challenged the then assumed orthodoxy of the direction and spread of humans. Kon-Tiki was named after a legendary King of a race of white, bearded men who lived in Peru. Heyerdahl proposed they made contact with the Polynesians and that they once inhabited Easter Island and Hawaii. His theory also hinged on the discovery of sweet potato being cultivated amongst the Polynesians, as it had originated in South America – indeed how else did this plant get there?
The sextant was an important tool to aid navigation, especially in the great Age of Discovery, it was used to explore and inevitably exploit hitherto inaccessible regions of the world. It can be used in daylight or at night to calculate a position line on a nautical chart and at night measure the lunar distance between the moon and a star or planet to determine Greenwich meantime, and hence longitude. This tool was first implemented around 1730 by John Hadley and Thomas Godfrey, but interestingly its design was later discovered in the unpublished writings of Isaac Newton. Longitude was an unresolved problem so much so that in 1714 the British Parliament offered £20,000 to anyone whose device proved successful, as thousands of lives had already been lost and even the fate of countries depended on a solution. A Yorkshire watchmaker, John Harrison 1693-1776, discovered the solution with the invention of his chronometer. Prior to this, mariners such as Drake, Vasco De Gama, Christopher Columbus and many others got to their destinations in a haphazard way through luck and bravery. The age of European exploration all over the world owed its success to the cosmos and human-kinds’ ability to create instruments that allowed the traversing of vast tracts of sea and land. James Cook’s voyages owed their success to having all the navigational instruments at his disposal in the second half of the 18th century.
On this long journey through time countless celestial maps and diagrams have been depicted on clay tablets, papyrus, cloth and paper which are treasured, and deemed works of art. Depictions of native peoples, flora, fauna and marine life from the 1400’s to the mid-19th century, are to be found in museums and collections worldwide. The artist on Matthew Flinders’ voyage to Australia, Ferdinand Bauer, came up with the ingenious idea of “painting by numbers” as he was unable to carry with him the range of colours needed for his exacting standards. On returning to England, he applied his colour chart to the numbered illustrations, the result was a faithful reproduction much admired by many, such as the scientist Sir Joseph Banks. He used this method to depict 1,700 plants and 300 animals of the Antipodes.
Talented artists of other nationalities were also employed for European voyages of discovery producing art of a high standard. In modern times artists have visualised contemporary themes based on the big bang, black holes and dark matter. Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism have explored cosmic themes. Salvador Dali and Wassily Kandinsky probed the mystery of the universe in their art. Photography has delved into the cosmos with technological advances exposing the beauty of distant galaxies. This is a modern version of 18th century explorers who recorded what was then distant and alien landscapes, especially those of the Antipodes. Science fiction, in books or comics, depict alien planets, beings and futuristic worlds. This continues in films such as 'Aliens' and '2001: a Space Odyssey'. The words star, sun and moon appear continuously in songs lyrics and in poetry such as Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Contemporary artists such as the Californian Shelley Carlisle, Swiss artist Atia Miraz, English artist Stephen Yates and Welsh artist Robert Davies have all created works based on the cosmos.
Robert Davies, painter and photographer, has metaphorically climbed his “Babylonian observatory “and constructed his own instrument such as a turntable to house a camera that can be set to different speeds to record the stars as they pass overhead. Robert’s sightings were taken in Iran, England, Scotland and Wales. The photographic images were shown in the exhibition Stars. The resultant celestial “drawings” have an ethereal beauty adding to human-kinds’ interpretations of the firmament over the eons.
Cosmology and art are interwoven into a tapestry of human expression and understanding, whether it be symbols in cave paintings, scientific illustrations, navigational instruments or zoomorphic art. This provides new perspectives and endless inspiration for artists. Through art and science humankind endeavours to explore Space and ponder the profound questions it raises. Since ancient times the combination of our innate curiosity and creative urge bridges the gap between art and the cosmos.
More on Dr. Davies can be found on his website: terrydaviesceramics.com
Copyedits made by the Editor.
Comments