Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps and Matter
Although there is no evidence for life on the Moon, our only natural satellite is inextricably linked to life on Earth. Through 31 essays, Lunar explores the links between the Moon and religion, language, art, medicine, and many other facets of human life from the earliest civilisations to the present day. The book’s wide subject matter is testament to the Moon’s enduring presence in culture and society, highlighting how perceptions and understanding of it have evolved, even though the Moon itself has not changed significantly in human history. Lunar is both a historical journey and an atlas. Interspersed with the essays are 44 maps, one for each quadrangle of the lunar nearside. Each map is accompanied by a cross section, close-up images, and summary of the main geological features and interpretations for that quadrangle. Thanks to its stunning formatting and images, Lunar is the ultimate coffee table book on the Moon with an array of fascinating stories to tell.
Via the essays, we see the Moon through the eyes of the Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other civilisations from across the world and throughout time. Lunar looks back on ancient myths in a respectable way, acknowledging that we, the reader, are not dissimilar to the people who believed those ancient myths and stories. For example, in Greek and Roman myth, the agricultural cycle of crops growing and being harvested in spring and summer, followed by a fallow winter was explained by the story of Persephone (Roman Proserpina). Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld but allowed to spend part of the year with her mother, Demeter (Roman Ceres). Their reunion led to flourishing crops in spring and summer, while their separation and mourning meant that crops wouldn’t grow over winter. Lunar’s clear writing style helps the reader understand why ancient civilisations believed what they did by elucidating the same observation and interpretation method that modern scientists use.
The Moon’s role in driving scientific advances is clear. It was fascinating to read that, in the early days of space exploration, sceptics doubted geology’s relevance to studying the Moon. Lunar recalls how, in 1961, geologists Shoemaker and Hackman proposed the first geological timescale of another planetary body and applied geological methods, such as stratigraphy, to the Moon for the first time, showing the seminal questions geologists have had about the Moon. Lunar ends by looking ahead to NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to answer some of humanity’s never-ending questions about our closest celestial neighbour.
Reviewed by Marissa Lo
Details
BY: Matthew Shindell & Dava Sobel (2024). Thames & Hudson. 256 pp. (hbk)
ISBN: 9780500027141
PRICE: £50 thamesandhudson.com
