Wrestling the Moon?
What connects an ancient Roman mosaic and a NASA astronaut from the Apollo 12 mission? Candace Richards, Assistant Curator of the Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum explains
Since 2018, the Chau Chak Wing Museum has been keeping one of its most recent acquisitions under wraps, a North African mosaic panel featuring Pankration wrestlers. It was acquired through a bequest from long-time Friend of the Nicholson Collection, Joyce Marchant. Now installed in the exhibition Roman Spectres, the Museum is thrilled to reveal its unusual ancient and modern histories.
The mosaic shows two men engaged in a Pankration competition. This sport was one of the fiercest combat games that made up the suite of boxing-wrestling style competitions of the Panhellenic Games (including the Olympics), which continued into the Roman period. The only off-limits moves were biting and eye or face gouging. The move depicted here is a heel-hook, in which the kneeling figure is about to use his competitor’s ankle to flip him onto his back and claim victory.The mosaic comes from Roman North Africa, where, like many regions of the Roman Empire, mosaics decorated the floors of wealthy individuals’ homes. Sporting and gladiatorial mosaics were a common motif throughout the Mediterranean during the Imperial period, up until the late 4th to early 5th centuries AD.
This panel was part of the Moroccan royal collection until it was gifted to Apollo 12 astronaut Richard Gordon by King Hussan II in 1970. The Apollo 12 mission succeeded the first landing on the moon by 4 months, launching on 14 November 1969. While the mission began ominously with two lightning strikes just after take-off, the three astronauts, Charles Conrad (Commander), Alan Bean (Lunar Module Pilot) and Richard Gordon (Command Module Pilot), successfully made their round trip to the moon with Conrad and Bean spending a total 31.6 hours on its surface.
S69-38992 (September 1969) — These three astronauts have been named by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as the prime crew of the Apollo 12 lunar landing mission. Left to right, are Charles Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon Jr., and Alan L. Bean. 
Charles Conrad Jr., Apollo 12 Commander, examines the unmanned Surveyor III spacecraft during the second extravehicular activity (EVA-2). The Lunar Module (LM) “Intrepid” is in the right background. This picture was taken by astronaut Alan L. Bean, Lunar Module pilot. The “Intrepid” landed on the Moon’s Ocean of Storms only 600 feet from Surveyor III. The television camera and several other components were taken from Surveyor III and brought back to earth for scientific analysis. Surveyor III soft-landed on the Moon on April 19, 1967.
Upon their return, the Apollo 12 team were sent around the world on a goodwill tour by then US President, Richard Nixon. They were greeted by royalty, government officials and prominent citizens, and in Rabat, Morocco, the astronauts were gifted with golden swords, medals of honour and, for Pilot Gordon, this piece of Moroccan history.
Candace Richards is the Assistant Curator of the Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney. This post was originally published as Richards, Candace (2020). Moroccan ‘moon’ mosaic. Muse: Art, Culture, Antiquities, Natural History. (26), pp. 18, republished by kind permission.