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History
and Meaning of Newgrange
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The illumination of the passage and
chamber at Newgrange
Winter Solstice
by winter solstice sunrises is world famous. Less well known is
the illumination of the passage and chamber at Dowth
Dowth Sunsets
by winter sunsets.
Dowth is
one of the 3 principle mounds of the Boyne Valley, Anne-Marie
Moroney has been observing winter sunsets at Dowth since 1997.
From the beginning of October to the end of February the sun
sends its rays from the south-west into the chamber. As the sun
appears progressively lower in the sky towards the winter
solstice, the beam travels first over the sill stone, then
enters the chamber and finally shines directly onto the stones
at the back of the chamber.
As I
said earlier a lot of our celtic jewelry
is inspired by the The Megalithic Passage Tomb
at Newgrange which was built about 3200 BC. The outer
kidney shaped mound covers an area of
over one acre and is surrounded by 97 Kerbstones, many of which
are decorated. The 19 metre long inner passage leads to a
cruciform chamber. It is estimated that the construction of the
Passage Tomb at Newgrange would have taken
a work force of 300 at least 20 years
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The
Circle of Life - as seen on an entrance
Stone in Newgrange - click on image
to see further details on Newgrange Tombstones.
As you can see from this photo this is one of
the carvings. This design it is
thought to believe means
the continuation of life. The eternal life
which never comes to an end. If
you study most Celtic Jewelry you will see there
is a lot of knot work and spirals. The
knot work - like the
spirals - reflects continuation.
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Some time after
6,000 years ago, a most advanced community of people arose in
Ireland. They were the builders of the great Stone Age monuments
of Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth,
Loughcrew and
Fourknocks.
The
Boyne Valley
sites are over 1,000 years older than the Giza pyramids - Newgrange is the
most famous site, with its
Winter Solstice
sunrise alignment, but Knowth has been
dated to 3,300BC, and
Dowth
may be older still. The plethora of cairns on
the Hills of
Loughcrew may even predate the Brú na Bóinne sites. Smaller
mounds at
Fourknocks and at the ancient seat of the high kings at the
Hill of Tara,
are also archaic, ancient and ascinating. |
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The monuments of Newgrange,
Dowth and
Knowth share
one great and glorious purpose - to
track time - by marking significant calendrical and astronomical
events such as the solstices, equinoxes, moon standstills,
cross-quarter days, and even precession of the equinoxes. Newgrange
may have been used not only to mark Winter Solstice
sunrise, but also full moon rise at certain
times in the lunar cycle, and may
have had an interesting connection with the
swan constellation
in ancient times. |
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Newgrange Sunrises
click on this link for more beautiful
photographs
http://www.knowth.com/winter-solstice.htm
All photographs compliments
of
www.knowth.com
for
more aerial photos - please see this
link
If
you would like more information about Newgrange
take a look at
the Visitor Centers site at
Knowth. |
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