Newgrange

NEWGRANGE

Palace of the Boyne

Situated: Beside River Boyne in Co. Meath

Dated: 3300 – 2900 B.C (over 5,000 years ago) one of the oldest surviving buildings in the world.

Dimensions: The passage including the back chamber is 24m in length – making it less than a third of the whole mound which is 85m in diameter. (a football pitch is 105m long). Highest point inside is 6m high (same height as a two story house excluding roof).

Stone: Quartz came from Co. Wicklow and granite beach stones from Dundalk Bay in Co. Louth

Chief Archaeologist to excavate site: Professor Michael J. O’Kelly 1967 - 1975

Note:

• Mound
• Winter Solstice
• Kerbstones
• Standing Stones
• The passage
• The Burial Chamber
• Corbelled Roof
• Entrance, Lintel, Roof Stone
• Basin Stone

VOICES FROM THE DAWN

Newgrange is one of the most startling achievements of the late Stone Age with its astonishingly sophisticated passages and chambers. 

It was built by a farming community that prospered on the rich land of the Boyne Valley.

Ancient Temple is a more fitting classification for this site rather than merely a passage tomb. It was a place of astrological, spiritual, religious and ceremonial importance, much as present day cathedrals are places of prestige and worship where dignitaries may be laid to rest.

Newgrange is a large kidney shaped mound covering an area of over one acre, retained at the base by 97 kerbstones, some of which are richly decorated with megalithic art. The 19 metre long inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber with a corbelled roof. The amount of time and labour invested in construction of Newgrange suggests a well-organized society with specialised groups responsible for different aspects of construction.

Newgrange is part of a complex of monuments built along a bend of the River Boyne known collectively as Brú na Bóinne. The other two principal monuments are Knowth (the largest) and Dowth, but throughout the region there are as many as 35 smaller mounds.

Winter Solstice

A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. As a result, on the day of the solstice, the Sun appears to have reached its highest or lowest annual altitude in the sky.

The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands and comes to a stop before reversing direction. The solstices, together with the equinoxes (Around September 23rd is the autumnal equinox. This is the day every point on the earth will have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness) are connected with the seasons. In many cultures the solstices mark either the beginning or the midpoint of winter and summer.

Newgrange is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. Above the entrance to the passage at Newgrange there is a opening called a roof-box. This baffling orifice held a great surprise for those who unearthed it. Its purpose is to allow sunlight to penetrate the chamber on the shortest days of the year, around December 21, the winter solstice.

At dawn, from December 19th to 23rd, a narrow beam of light penetrates the roof-box and reaches the floor of the chamber, gradually extending to the rear of the chamber. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens within the chamber so that the whole room becomes dramatically illuminated. This event lasts for 17 minutes, beginning around 9am.

The accuracy of Newgrange as a time-telling device is remarkable when one considers that it was built 500 years before the Great Pyramids and more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge. The intent of its builders was undoubtedly to mark the beginning of the New Year. In addition, it may have served as a powerful symbol of the victory of life over death.

Each year the winter solstice event attracts much attention at Newgrange. Many gather at the ancient tomb to wait for dawn, as people did 5,000 years ago. So great is the demand to be one of the few inside the chamber during the solstice that there is a free annual lottery. Unfortunately, as with many Irish events that depend upon sunshine, if the skies are overcast, there is not much to be seen. Yet all agree that it is an extraordinary feeling to wait in the darkness, as people did so long ago, for the longest night of the year to end.

While it is difficult to comprehend the meaning of the Winter Solstice to the Neolithic mind, it may be even more problematic to interpret the intricate carvings, the prehistoric artwork that decorates some 110 of the monument’s uncovered exterior and interior slabs. Perhaps the most celebrated of these stone carvings is the triple-spiral that decorates the right-hand side slab of the rear (north) recess of the inner chamber. This may be seen in a close-up view within the virtual-reality environment; view it in full-screen mode to note all the detail of the engraved stone. This iconic “triskele,” illuminated only once a year by the sun of the Neolithic Winter Solstice, may have symbolized for the builders a connection between different realms of existence, a vortex enabled by the sunlight.

Passage Tomb Art

- which are found on both the visible and the hidden surfaces of the stones.

      

Many attempts have been made to interpret passage tomb art. There are some who say that the art looks like a series of maps of the area, maps of the stars, or maps of the after world. Some see the art as a meditation device or argue that it represents images induced by hallucinogens. Others argue that it is music. The most popular theory is that the forms represent the changing seasons, the passage tomb builders’ preoccupation with time and with marking major solar events like the solstices and the equinoxes. Perhaps the changing and cyclical nature of the seasons was bound in the people’s minds with their own lives. Perhaps from their observations of the natural world they hoped that just as winter was followed by spring, new life followed death.

     

Mythology and Folklore

In local tradition, Newgrange was the home of Aengus Óg and the Daghdha, the gods of the Tuatha Dé Danaan is the ancient name for Newgrange and the other nearby tombs, including Knowth and Dowth, was Brú na Bóinne, the Palace of the Boyne. From the top of any one of these three major passage tombs, the other two may be seen.

Palace of the Boyne

Around 1830 a priest went to Newgrange to try to uncover evidence of its ancient name still being used. He found that local usage referred to the site as “Bro-Park,” and nearby were “Bro-Farm” and “Bro-Mill,” all using the modern derivation of the older Irish “Brú” thus the identical name An Brugh, the Palace.

The legendary resident of Brú na Bóinne, Aengus Óg, was the son of the Dagda, the “good god,” of the Irish. The Dagda had an affair with Aengus’ mother, Boann, who symbolized the river Boyne. To disguise the illicit union the Dagda ordered the sun to stand still for nine months. Thus Aengus was conceived, brought to term, and born all in one day. Aengus Óg, “Aengus the Young,” the son of youth and poetic inspiration. He was said to have four birds symbolizing kisses flying about his head (it is believed, the xxxx’s symbolizing kisses at the end of lovers’ letters come from).

 When he learned that he would inherit nothing from his father the Dagda, Aengus used his wiles to re-order time in his own way. He asked the Dagda if he could live in Brú na Bóinne for “a day and a night,” and his father agreed. Afterwards, however, Aengus insisted that “a day and a night” was equal to “all days and all nights.” Thus he took over possession of the Palace on the Boyne.

The White Quartz Facade

Quartz played another role in the construction—and the reconstruction—of the monument, one that was perhaps more significant, and ultimately more controversial, as well. Professor O’Kelly excavated the area (from 1962 to 1975). He found at the front of the tomb a layer almost entirely composed of angular pieces of white quartz.

Quartz is certainly a visually striking stone—it sparkles, it is luminous. It is not surprising, therefore, that prehistoric people attached a special significance to it.  The white quartz at Newgrange would have glowed in the light of the morning sun and so we might suggest that there was some connection between quartz and the sun. On the other hand, the whiteness of quartz resembles most closely the whiteness of that other great heavenly body—the moon. Some researchers have suggested that because quartz comes from the ground but catches the light from the sky, it may have been regarded by prehistoric people as important because it mediated between the realms of earth and sky. Others have suggested the luminous quality of quartz might have symbolized the life force or perhaps even the human ‘soul.’

Kerbstones of Newgrange