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- Nov 02, 2009
- Original:
- 1024 × 768
- Original date:
- Aug 02, 2005
The tomb covers an area of one acre and consists of a man-made stone and turf mound within a circle consisting of 97 large kerbstones. The face around the perimiter of the tomb is faced with sparkling white quartz possibly sourced from the Wicklow ountains, a whole 80km away. The granite on the permiter wall was most probably sourced from Dundalk Bay.
The interior of the mound consists of a long passage leading to a cross-shaped chamber. This burial chamber has a corballed roof which rises steeply to a high-point of close to 20 feet. The recesses in chamber contain large stone basins which would have held the cremated remains of those being laid to rest. During excavation of the tomb, the remains of five people were found.
Over the entrance to the tomb is a roofbox. On the winter solstice each year, the sun shines through the roofbox and along the internal passage lighting the burial chamber fotr about 17 minutes as it rises illuminating the carvings within the chamber. At all other times of the year the tomb is shrouded in darkness. While solar alignments are not uncommon in other passage graves, Newgrange is essentially the only one to incorporate a roofbox.
At the entrance to Newgrange stands a highly-decorated stone. The carvings on the stone include a tripal spiral motif which is found only at Newgrange and is repeated along the passage and again inside the chamber. It is unknown what the meaning of these carvings are.
Wikipedia Article
Megalithic art refers to the use of large stones as an artistic medium. Although some modern artists and sculptors make use of large stones in their work, the term is more generally used to describe art carved onto megaliths in prehistoric Europe.
Megalithic art is found in many places in Western Europe although the main concentrations are in Ireland, Brittany and Iberia. Megalithic art started in the Neolithic and continued into the Bronze Age. Although many monument types received this form of art the majority is carved on Neolithic passage graves. Megalithic art tends to be highly abstract and contains relatively few representations of recognisable real objects. Megalithic art is often similar to prehistoric rock art and contains many similar motifs such as the 'cup and ring mark', although the two forms of rock carving also have large stylistic differences. The meaning of megalithic art is the subject of much debate.
Weathering and vandalism have affected many examples of the art and little of it remains to day.
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