Worlds in Shadow: Submerged Lands in Science, Memory and Myth

by Patrick Nunn

Discover ancient civilization that have disappeared beneath the ocean's surface and explore how the science of submergence adds to our knowledge of human history.

The traces of much of human history--and that which preceded it--lie beneath the ocean surface; broken up, dispersed, often buried, and always mysterious. This is fertile ground for speculation, even myth-making, but also a topic on which geologists and climatologists have increasingly focused on in recent decades. We now know enough to tell the true story of some of the continents and islands that have disappeared throughout the Earth's history, to explain how and why such things happened, and to unravel the effects of submergence on the rise and fall of human civilizations. The implications of all this for our current situation and the challenges ahead are clear for all to see.

Worlds in Shadow is the first book to present the science of submergence in a popular format. Patrick Nunn sifts the fact from the fiction, using the most up-to-date research to work out which submerged places may have actually existed versus those that probably only exist in myth. He looks at the descriptions of recently drowned lands that have been well-documented, those that could possibly be plausible, and those that almost certainly didn't exist.

Reaching even further back, Nunn examines the presence of older, more ancient lands, submerged beneath the waves in a time that even the longest-reaching folk memory can't reach. Such places may have played important roles in human evolution, but can only be reconstructed through careful geological detective work. Finally, he considers why and how lands became submerged, whether from sea-level changes, tectonic changes, gravity collapse, giant waves or volcanoes, and looks to the future to uncover why, when and where land may disappear in the future, and what might be done to prevent it.

In his engaging and accessible style, Patrick Nunn emphasises the importance of understanding the submerged lands of our past, but also brings an important sense of perspective to guard against the hyperbole that frequently occurs in the subject. Featuring research, examples, and stories from around the world, Worlds in Shadow is an important and grounded contribution to the science of submergence.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2021

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just because much human history is invisible does not mean it was never there or that its existence was unimportant. In order to properly understand ourselves and our journey as a species, our challenge is to acknowledge the existence of this hidden history and try, iteratively and painstakingly, to piece it together from the fragments we can see.

I thought from its description that Worlds in Shadow: Submerged Lands in Science, Memory and Myth would be primarily about those eerily lost places that seem to persist only in a nearby people’s folklore — and to a degree, those stories are here: from a Polynesian tale of a guardian shark who thrashed its tail against an island’s underwater support pillar, causing it to topple over, to the Breton conteurs of North-West France who still travel village to village telling of the fabulous lost city of Ys, long submerged in the ocean — but as much as researcher and author Patrick Nunn refers to such tales as jumping off points, this is really about the science of how islands do, sometimes, suddenly appear and disappear, and moreso, how humans throughout history have dealt with ever-changing coastlines; an issue pressing for our times as a warming Earth threatens coastal dwellers all over our “drowning world”. I am personally more interested in people's stories than the geological science that could get a little dry here (even if so much of the cataclysmic processes were shockingly new to me; I did naively think that the ground beneath my feet was more solid and enduring than it is), but I can’t fault a book for not being what I expected. Thorough, ultimately interesting and credible, Worlds in Shadow taught me much. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

In a world where we are confronted by global change that is as contemptuous of human endeavour and individual aspiration as it is dismissive of political borders and agendas, understanding how our ancestors were affected by comparable changes and how they overcame these is at once a lesson in coping as well as a beacon of hope.

Wherever Nunn cites traditional peoples’ legends — the Tlingit of British Columbia tell of a monster who lives in the bay and periodically shakes the surface of the water like a sheet, Narungga (Aboriginal) stories describe a giant kangaroo that once dragged a bone through the Spencer Gulf, carving a channel that let the ocean in — he then describes the evidence in the geological record that proves these stories are actually describing known events. Nunn encourages us to regard these legends as science from the past and to marvel at the endurance of tales that were passed down orally for countless generations. And I learned some things about famous lost worlds that I didn’t know: Nunn flatly insists that Atlantis didn’t exist, “There are numerous clues in the writings of Plato, who manufactured the story of Atlantis in about 350 BC, that it is allegorical not factual...a fiction created to illustrate the principles explained in The Republic.” (I always assumed that because it was first described by Plato that that was pretty firm evidence that Atlantis did exist, even if I didn’t think that it was populated by some super-advanced technological society.) And I guess I never critically examined the difference between the supercontinents that are said to have once existed (Pangea and Gondwana were real, Lemuria is a fiction; I always thought they were pretty much different names for the same thing.) And I was challenged by Nunn’s dismissal of the deep ocean as our final unexplored frontier:

While scientists may not have explored every square metre of the ocean floor, there is little mystery about what is there. Imagine you have a back garden of 30m2. You may dig a few holes here and there to plant fruit trees, but would you really expect to find anything wildly different by digging elsewhere?

(Is that analogy actually self-evident?) I did appreciate the thorough descriptions of the science behind submergence (whether from sea-level changes, tectonic changes, gravity collapse, giant waves, or volcanoes), and especially as it relates to the threatened places where people live today. (Bottom line: there’s nothing we can do to prevent island and coastline submergence — processes are happening beneath our feet that we can’t control and melting glaciers are only adding to these natural phenomena — and our focus should be on relocation.) Yet, if I had a complaint about this book it would be the condescending tone that Nunn uses when arguing against the beliefs of pseudoscientists; they who would use the universally compelling idea of lost lands to advance their own (nefarious?) agendas:

Consider the end of the supposed lost continent of Mu, claimed to have once stretched across most of the Pacific Ocean (it didn’t), described in a 1931 book by James Churchward.

Cataclysmic earthquakes rent Mu asunder…she became a fiery vortex, and the waters of the Pacific rushed in making a watery grave for a vast civilisation and sixty million people.

Pure flapdoodle, of course. But we can trace self- styled ‘Colonel’ Churchward’s description back to a time a few years after the 1883 Krakatau eruption when Helena Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, was composing her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine. In it she described a ‘huge land’ named Rutas allegedly described in (conveniently unspecified) ‘Brahminical traditions’. One day, Rutas was abruptly destroyed in a volcanic cataclysm and ‘sent to the ocean depths’ leaving behind only the islands of Indonesia to mark the place where it once stood. No one has uncovered Brahminical or any other traditions to support Blavatsky’s ludicrous claims about Rutas, but it is almost certain that reports about the Krakatau eruption greatly influenced her thinking at this point in her life as she scratched out her specious legacy in a cramped South London tenement.

There is a preponderance of really interesting information in Worlds in Shadow — if sometimes a little dry, if sometimes a little patronising — and even if the takeaway message is that the habitable Earth has always been dropping away beneath humanity’s feet and we’ve managed to survive as a species to tell the tale, I ultimately found that more frightening than hopeful. Rounding up to four stars.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75 stars

An interesting (though sometimes patronizing) examination of submerged lands in terms of oral traditions (i.e. memory and mythology) and the available science. Nunn hypothesizes that oral traditions record actual environmental changes that affected our ancestors. He takes traditional stories of various places and then ties them to physical, geological events, such as volcanoes, earthquakes, underwater landslides, and sea-level changes. The last two chapters take a look at how past and future communities deal with changing sea levels and eroded land. The book includes some maps, illustrations, and a section of colour photographs, but it could really have used many more maps and illustrations.

[agata · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Worlds in Shadow the author and scientist, Patrick Nunn, explains the fact and the fiction behind submerged cities. We all have heard and wondered about those mysterious places at some point in our lives - I’m sure everyone is familiar with the legend of Atlantis (spoiler alert: a myth, as Nunn proves in the book). Nunn, a Professor of Geography at the University of the Sunshine Coast, specializes in the effects that rising sea-levels have on geology and coastal areas, and that’s what is the main focus in this book. Nunn talks about the fact that some of the stories of submerged cities survived hundreds of generations and while many of them are just that, stories, some of them are at least based in truth, and he provides many examples. The one that stuck with me the most is Atlit Yam, an ancient city near the cost of Israel that is dated to more than 8000 years old and was probably flooded by a 10-story-high tsunami.

Nunn focuses also on even older geological events that led us to where we are, like how the oceans were created and how the tectonic plates moved across the eras. In the last chapters, he explains what’s going to happen next, using the example of the city of Nadi. Nadi was being constantly flooded and although the authorities tried many things - more drainage, river dredges - the problem continued. Sadly, the true cause of the flooding, climate change, doesn’t have an easy fix. The author says that while we can’t know for sure what the future holds, we can try to fight it, and I found that message very hopeful.

Overall, although I did at times find my mind wandering when faced with so many geological and historical facts, World in Shadows is an important and fascinating read.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absorbing book, Worlds in Shadow reveals the past natural events that might very well lie encoded in our stories. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...

[Luke Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and informative look at lands lost to the ocean, in both recent times and the far past. Nunn writes with a scientific angle, but integrates so much folklore and traditional knowledge from various places that I hesitate to call this a "science" book. I mean that in the best way possible, as Nunn integrates scientific data where relevant and helpful, but never loses the general audience member in scientific jargon. Instead, he effectively uses a scientific background to add credence to the traditional stories discussed in the book. It is fascinating to think that cultures today, such as those of the Aboriginal Australians, preserve genuine recollections of lands now lost to time. A highly recommended book for anyone who has ever wondered what history lies behind the stories of Atlantis, Cantre'r Gwaelod, Ys, and Lyonesse

[Yanique Gillana · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

I am grateful to Bloomsberry USA for sending me an advanced copy of this book for review.

This was a very niche non-fiction read that I didn't know I needed to read. Submerged lands, cities, and lost civilizations are fascinating, and this book opened my eyes to so much more. I love history, but this particular field is not something that I've ever given much thought, so this was such a good read.

I enjoyed the structure of the book which made it easy to read from cover to cover and feel less like a text book. We start off with looking at Atlantis, a mythological sunken city, and then we move on to real historical places, then modern day locations. This book touches on historic moments when areas of land sank in minutes, and compared to gradual and recurring incidents of the sea reclaiming land. Then we touch on modern concerns with rising sea levels. Altogether very informative and well laid out.

I enjoyed this and I would recommend this to people interested in history and geography.

[Gin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nunn writes very well, though it’s not difficult to miss the disdain that he has for pseudoscience and their proponent throughout the book. I can understand why though, since the entertainment and promoting of these “mysteries” serve to obscure the true science behind the reasons why islands can disappear, why sea levels can fall and rise, why lands can be displaced. Looking at them objectively can provide insights into what can be done to deal with the forces nature throw at humanity.

I found a portion in the first chapter something to ponder about - that rather than dismiss the tales and fables and the oral tradition of peoples like indigenous Australians and Pacific Islanders, these seemingly mythical tales can clue us in on tumultuous events that had happened. This is different from considering the possibility of the “lost lands” of Mu or Nemuria or Atlantis, because unlike the latter, the former events are possible because today’s science can adequately explain those events as possibilities. His book is replete with credible examples from credible sources (scientists working in this respective views).

Overall, as someone who has an interest in oceanography and geology, the book was sufficiently comprehensive and easy to read. What I felt could be improved was the addition of more maps and figures. So many times I had to use Google Earth and the internet in general to find out what island or sunken land he is referring to. It’s not a deal breaker, but certainly would have been helpful.

[Stewart Monckton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I struggled a bit with this book. While the issue of rising sea levels is clearly important, I not sure this is the best book to read about. It's central idea - that sea levels have always changed, and that many traditional 'myths and legends' have their basis in the retained cultural memory of such events - is interesting and almost certainly true. However, once the book moves away from this idea is seems to get bogged down. The author seems to use 6 examples, when two would suffice and often repeats details (the number of times that post glacial melting is explained is remarkable) and seems all too willing to poke fun at pseudo-science. (Now pseudo-science deserves to be mocked, but it gets a bit old when it happens so often)

Equally, I seem to recall no mention of the idea that thermal expansion of the oceans as they warm would cause the sea level to rise even if no additional water was added from other sources.

Basically I suggest that you probably need to proceed with care when choosing to read (or not) this book.

[Toula Gordillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed "Worlds in Shadow". The introduction: "Hearing the Past" resonated with me and I was both fascinated and delighted to read Professor Nunn's blend of modern science and myth-making. Professor Nunn demonstrates an appreciation of creativity serving as a practical memory aid and knowledge system deeply rooted in the consciousness of humanity. As a Jungian psychotherapist and Clinical psychologist with a keen interest in ancient and modern knowledge systems, I see such crossover work as not only fascinating, but necessary for future preservation of our world globally. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science and story.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging and full of surprises.

Author, a scientist himself, combines knowledge from many sources and disciplines - geography, geology, archeology, spoken history, to name just a few - into a coherent and original tale of sunken lands, real and imaginary ones. Underwater archeology is far less known than its terrestrial kind, so diving into this topic was fascinating for me.

Despite being a little textbook-ish, it is very well written and easy to follow. And in the time of climate crisis and rising sea levels it is worth knowing how our ancestors managed to survive similar situations.

Thanks to the publisher, Bloomsbury USA, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF simply because I didn't have enough time with the eARC (and/or had too many other items out at the same time). This seemed easy to understand, at least the first few chapters that I made it through. More maps would have been nice; in absence of maps, this would make a great audiobook (ideally with a companion PDF with more maps.) :D

eARC from NetGalley.