Book Review

Astronomy before the telescope

Edited by Christopher Walker.
Foreword by Patrick Moore.
350 pages. £25.00. ISBN 0-7141-1746-3.

British Museum Press
46 Bloomsbury Street
London WC1B 3QQ
Available directly from the above or from any good bookseller.

As the blurb inside the dust cover says, this is the most comprehensive and authoritative survey to date of world astronomy before the invention of the telescope. Until the present reviewer read this book he had assumed, incorrectly, that pre-telescopic astronomy had been essentially that of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures. Most books dealing with ancient astronomy concentrate on these, with perhaps occasional specific reference to the Mayan and Chinese astronomers when solar eclipses or novae are discussed. Other cultures are hardly ever mentioned. Archaeoastronomy is a relatively new science and perhaps this book could not have been written much sooner. It is well within the past forty years that the work of Alexander Thom and Gerald Hawkins suggested that Stonehenge and other stone circles in the British Isles and France were used as astronomical observatories.

But ideas change rapidly: Less than twenty years ago, a writer on the stone circles in the Derbyshire Peak District was invited to give a talk on the subject to the Manchester Astronomical Society and having done so, and not once having referred to their astronomical significance, replied when questioned about this that since writing his book it was no longer thought that they were used primarily as observatories but as places of worship and for social gatherings! Astronomy before the telescope also avoids obvious over-simplification and goes into much greater depth to explain the fundamental astronomical beliefs of our ancestors for whom astronomy was a very practical tool in addition to its mythological, religious and social connotations.

Astronomy before the telescope really is very comprehensive. The seventeen chapters cover in detail the astronomy of Europe, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, India, Islam, China, Korea, Japan, the Americas, Africa, Australia, Polynesia, and even Maori astronomy spanning the four thousand years or so from prehistoric times up to the Reformation and the invention of the telescope. Obviously these cultures did not develop and evolve their science simultaneously and both gaps and overlaps did exist. The comparisons and contrasts in the beliefs of civilisations, in many instances isolated geographically by thousands of miles, often across oceans, make fascinating reading. From prehistoric astronomical beliefs, to the awakening objectivity of astronomy as a predictable, quantifiable science in late sixteenth century Europe, this book amply covers the lot.

No single author could have done justice to such a vast subject. The astronomy of the diverse world cultures had to be described by experts in their field and this has been ably done by the contributions of nineteen international authorities. For both scholars and amateurs alike, for whom Astronomy before the telescope will provide a thorough overview of the subject, the book will repay frequent reference. It is not to be read once and then put down, there is too much to learn from its pages: Each of the chapters is complete with an extensive bibliography which will be of immediate value to researchers, the book is well illustrated with diagrams and pictures, including twenty colour plates, and an extensive glossary rounds off the work nicely.

In many respects, certainly for the mass of well researched detail it contains, the book complements and somewhat resembles in format Henry C. King's 1955 thesis, "The History of the Telescope". It too will surely stand the test of time as an important reference work on pre-telescopic astronomy and will find its way into astronomical libraries world-wide. Astronomy before the telescope is comparable in price to many other hardback science books but when its contents are evaluated it will be readily appreciated that it is surprisingly inexpensive. It is thoroughly recommended.

Kevin J Kilburn
Past President, Manchester Astronomical Society.
Secretary, North West Group of Astronomical Societies.

Back to the NWGAS Home page.

Maintained by Graham Hodson Email: nwgas@manastro.co.uk
Last updated 3 March, 2003