{"id":29739,"date":"2016-03-02T07:52:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T07:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/?p=29739"},"modified":"2018-04-01T07:30:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T06:30:35","slug":"archive-2930","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/archive-2930\/","title":{"rendered":"Archive 2930"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the html version of the file https:\/\/www.arkives.com\/soai\/soai.pdf\u00a0. Google<\/strong> automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Page 1<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Page 2<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The<\/p>\n

Stones<\/p>\n

of<\/p>\n

Ancient<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Page 3<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Arkives Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

San Francisco<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE STONES<\/p>\n

OF ANCIENT<\/p>\n

IRELAND<\/p>\n

HANK HARRISON<\/strong><\/p>\n

a Stone Hunter\u2019s Field GuiDE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Page 4<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 1998 and 2009<\/p>\n

Hank Harrison<\/p>\n

All rights reserved. Exclusive world rights licensed to Archives Press. Printed in<\/p>\n

the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced<\/p>\n

in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief<\/p>\n

quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.<\/p>\n

Design Hank Harrison<\/p>\n

Layout and graphics Triona Watson @ BookProcessor.<\/p>\n

Special Illustrations copyright Jack Roberts by permission.<\/p>\n

Manufactured in the United States of America<\/p>\n

Union Made<\/p>\n

Printed on recycled, acid free paper<\/p>\n

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:<\/p>\n

Harrison, G. H. (1940 – )<\/p>\n

The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/p>\n

Includes bibliographical references and index<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Archaeology 2. Anthropology 3. Astronomy<\/li>\n
  2. Celtic Mythology 5. Irish Travel<\/li>\n
  3. Harrison, Hank II. Title<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 91-071190<\/p>\n

    ISBN: Cloth 0-918501-40-7<\/p>\n

    Trade Paper 0-918501-41-5<\/p>\n

    Warburg Institute Categories<\/p>\n

    This Book is 100% recyclable.<\/p>\n

    Cover Illustration: Cairn L at Loughcrew at the<\/em><\/p>\n

    exact moment of Autumnal Equinox sunset.<\/em><\/p>\n

    .<\/em><\/p>\n

    Set in Warnock Pro with LITHOs <\/strong>heads<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 5<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The author wishes to thank the following people and places for their unstint-<\/p>\n

    ing support in the preparation of this book:: Chris and Barbera Warnock, Don<\/p>\n

    Skirving and Beth Grossman, Dawn Levy, Maude Elizabeth Johnson, Lloyd<\/p>\n

    Saxton, Omar Del Carlo, Nelson Algren, Elaine Markson, Tom Constanten,<\/p>\n

    Marylin and Patty Kitchell, Rodney Albin, Peter Albin, Peter Rowan, Ichiro<\/p>\n

    Kodaka, Elizabeth Leader, Janette Jackson, Shirley Abicair, Jim and Lynn Gillam,<\/p>\n

    Dan Aeyelts, Crystal Aeyelts, Christopher Rudmann, Helene Kopejean, David<\/p>\n

    Leiberman, Bill Franklin, Wolfgang Bielefeld, David and Carolyn Eyes, Ted Eyes,<\/p>\n

    Dan and Yolanda Mcleod and all the folks at the Georgia Straight, Kay Hoffman,<\/p>\n

    Dan Rossett, Tony Bove and Cheryl Rhodes, Ekhardt and Persis Gerdes, Anata<\/p>\n

    Riddle, Abbey Johnston, Joffra Boschart, Diana Vandeburg, Phil Lesh, John<\/p>\n

    Michell, Jerry Garcia, Bob Hunter, Alan Triste, Joan O\u2019Sullivan, Karen Melquist-<\/p>\n

    High, Gerry Ganter, Jo Hickman, Futzie Nutzle, Henry Humble, Spinny Walker,<\/p>\n

    Harry Ely, LaVerne Leroy, Dan Poynter, Danny Moses Earth Island and Sierra<\/p>\n

    Club Books, Randy Flemming, Charles Winton, Mike Winton, Bill Hearst, and<\/p>\n

    all the people at PGW, Dave Hinds and Celestial Arts, Randy Beek and all the<\/p>\n

    folks at BookPeople, David Wilk and all the folks at Inland Books, Hakim-Provo<\/p>\n

    Thompson and New Leaf, Montalvo Center,<\/p>\n

    DEDIcATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

    IN MEMORIA<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Dame Frances Yates<\/p>\n

    Nelson Algren & Kurt Cobain<\/p>\n

    For<\/em><\/p>\n

    Frances Bean Cobain<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 6<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Foreword …………………………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n

    ix<\/p>\n

    The First Scientists ………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n

    ?<\/p>\n

    A History in Stone …………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n

    ??<\/p>\n

    Magic & Architecture ……………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ??<\/p>\n

    Newgrange ………………………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n

    ??<\/p>\n

    Celtic Warrior …………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ??<\/p>\n

    Knowth ………………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ??<\/p>\n

    Star Script …………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ??<\/p>\n

    Grave Robbers & Savants ……………………………………………….<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    Dowth ………………………………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    The Stone of the Seven Suns …………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    Witch Mountain ………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    Legends of the West ……………………………………………………….<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    CONTENTs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 7<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Analemma ………………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    Time & Timelessness …………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    The Final Harmonic ………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    Appendix A …………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    Index ……………………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n

    Bibliography …………………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n

    ???<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 8<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Above: A satellite view of Dowth (Dubh) at Spring Equinox sunrise. Dowth, meaning<\/em><\/p>\n

    darkness, is the eastern most mound in the Boyne complex and one of the mounds<\/em><\/p>\n

    represented by the famed triple spiral icon. This mound captures several lightbeams and<\/em><\/p>\n

    is situated in an exceedingly auspicious location for a ritual pilgrimage. It also contains a<\/em><\/p>\n

    number of highly decorated stones and is probably far older than Newgrange. More than<\/em><\/p>\n

    5500 years ago, pilgrims trekked and paddled up the river from the Irish sea, debarked<\/em><\/p>\n

    and camped across the river on the south bank of the Boyne. On solstice and equinox<\/em><\/p>\n

    dates, the pilgrims made their way across the river, up the hill and Dowth for ceremonies.<\/em><\/p>\n

    This mound was about 100 feet higher as recently as the 18th century, and featured a<\/em><\/p>\n

    tea Pavilion on flat top. Sadly, it was partially torn down by road builders. Even so, the<\/em><\/p>\n

    mound is so large, it could not be completely destroyed and it stands, to this day, mostly<\/em><\/p>\n

    unexcavated. Several of the huge buried stones around its perimeter have never been<\/em><\/p>\n

    photographed or agreeably deciphered. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 9<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    FOREwORD<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In Ireland, on 21 December each year, about<\/p>\n

    twenty miles North of the Dublin Airport \u2014 a<\/p>\n

    beam of light projects into a stone encircled<\/p>\n

    mound called Newgrange. The beam moves slowly<\/p>\n

    through a slender passage and into a cavernous<\/p>\n

    chamber in the center of the structure. The beam, as<\/p>\n

    commonly reported, forms in the chamber at sunrise,<\/p>\n

    but in fact it appears only after the sun is high enough<\/p>\n

    in the sky to clear a false horizon formed by a ridge to<\/p>\n

    the South.This is an ingenious and unique plan that<\/p>\n

    shows a vast understanding of navigation, astronomy<\/p>\n

    and celestial reckoning.<\/p>\n

    Once in the chamber the light beam falls to<\/p>\n

    the floor, comes to a point and illuminates a basin<\/p>\n

    stone. The beam then proceeds to the back wall of<\/p>\n

    the North chamber where it illumi nates the famed<\/p>\n

    triple spiral carving which has become an Irish na-<\/p>\n

    tional symbol. The light runs up the walls driven by<\/p>\n

    the earth\u2019s rotation. As it moves it strikes numerous<\/p>\n

    other markings. Seventeen minutes after it enters<\/p>\n

    the mound the beam slides out. But its job is not<\/p>\n

    complete. At around four o\u2019clock in the afternoon,<\/p>\n

    the beam appears again at a nearby mound called<\/p>\n

    Dowth and the miracle continues. This phenomenon<\/p>\n

    is not drawn from science-fiction, hundreds of sober<\/p>\n

    people make the pilgrimage every year to witness<\/p>\n

    the beam. It has been documented and accepted by<\/p>\n

    the Irish government. Why is this such a big deal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 10<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    x<\/p>\n

    Who cares if a light beam enters a pile of stones? It<\/p>\n

    wouldn\u2019t be a big deal if the stones had been erected a few<\/p>\n

    hundred years ago, but the construction of these mounds<\/p>\n

    began six-thousand years ago and they still keep time.<\/p>\n

    More importantly, the people who built the light beam<\/p>\n

    temples of Ireland may have been heliocentric. They seem<\/p>\n

    to have understood that the sun was at the center of the<\/p>\n

    planetary system, and they clearly developed a form of<\/p>\n

    mathematics to track these celestial phenomenon. We are<\/p>\n

    only now beginning to understand, what they discovered<\/p>\n

    and we still have only tiny hints about how they did it.<\/p>\n

    This sense of heliocentrism may have been their<\/p>\n

    biggest breakthrough. It is entirely possible that the<\/p>\n

    buildup of observatories in the Neolithic period was due<\/p>\n

    to a raging quest to demonstrate new discoveries. The<\/p>\n

    mound builders were the keepers of an ancient wisdom,<\/p>\n

    a genetic code locked in legendary lore. This legend base<\/p>\n

    probably took on a mystical sheen, but was constructively<\/p>\n

    scientific at its roots.<\/p>\n

    New evidence points to the realization that the<\/p>\n

    mounds of the Atlantic Neolithic era were constructed<\/p>\n

    to translate Paleolithic oral tradition, based on insights<\/p>\n

    perhaps as old as homo erectus<\/em>, into terms that could be<\/p>\n

    carved and carried on for generations to come.<\/p>\n

    By now you may be asking, What has that got to do<\/p>\n

    Above: Staleen<\/em><\/p>\n

    Cottage, Ros na Rig,<\/em><\/p>\n

    Donore, County<\/em><\/p>\n

    Meath. The Boyne<\/em><\/p>\n

    river flows in the<\/em><\/p>\n

    background. This<\/em><\/p>\n

    seventeenth century<\/em><\/p>\n

    cottage acted as<\/em><\/p>\n

    the author\u2019s base of<\/em><\/p>\n

    operations for two<\/em><\/p>\n

    years. The Georgian<\/em><\/p>\n

    door and shutters can<\/em><\/p>\n

    be opened to let the<\/em><\/p>\n

    lightbeam for Dowth<\/em><\/p>\n

    sunset pass through.<\/em><\/p>\n

    In 2008 an entire<\/em><\/p>\n

    Neolithic village was<\/em><\/p>\n

    excavated east of the<\/em><\/p>\n

    hedge and the white<\/em><\/p>\n

    dots out of focus on the<\/em><\/p>\n

    river are the resident<\/em><\/p>\n

    swans.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 11<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Foreword<\/em><\/p>\n

    x i<\/p>\n

    Above: Newgrange and its position in the Boyne Valley. The blue line marks<\/em><\/p>\n

    the path of the sun beam from the southeast to the northwest, as the earth<\/em><\/p>\n

    orbits around the sun cast beam. The blue marker on top of the mound marks<\/em><\/p>\n

    the location of a missing standing stone which cast an oppositional shadow.<\/em><\/p>\n

    On Winter Solstice morning each year, sunlight enters the front of the mound<\/em><\/p>\n

    through a narrow slit\u2014known as \u201cThe Roofbox\u201d\u2014forming a beam. At the same<\/em><\/p>\n

    time a long moving shadow theoretically moves to the rear of the mound and<\/em><\/p>\n

    strikes a design etched on an opposing carved stone. The two beam forms,<\/em><\/p>\n

    operating in elegant harmony, indicate the exact length of the solstice event. The<\/em><\/p>\n

    white line represents the transit of Venus as it passes across the roofbox opening.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The event length is ultimately determined by the arrival and exit of the God and<\/em><\/p>\n

    Goddess.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 12<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    xii<\/p>\n

    Opposite Page:<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u201cThe god and goddess, now<\/em><\/p>\n

    merged, appear as one before<\/em><\/p>\n

    the multitude.\u201d…<\/em><\/p>\n

    Appolonius of Tyana<\/em><\/p>\n

    Satelite view of finsihed<\/em><\/p>\n

    rebuilding of Knowth. The<\/em><\/p>\n

    blue line follows the Sun line<\/em><\/p>\n

    from the top of the Duleek-<\/em><\/p>\n

    Donor hill to New Grange<\/em><\/p>\n

    and ends in the rear mound<\/em><\/p>\n

    chamber at Knowth. Tourists<\/em><\/p>\n

    are told that the beam begins<\/em><\/p>\n

    to form in the roofbox at<\/em><\/p>\n

    New Grange, but recent<\/em><\/p>\n

    investigations show that it<\/em><\/p>\n

    begins at a man-made notch<\/em><\/p>\n

    and platform on the crest of<\/em><\/p>\n

    the hill across the Boyne River<\/em><\/p>\n

    on private land. This critical<\/em><\/p>\n

    alignment factor has never<\/em><\/p>\n

    been reported in academic<\/em><\/p>\n

    journals or the press. The line<\/em><\/p>\n

    between the Southeastern<\/em><\/p>\n

    notch and Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

    is marked with several<\/em><\/p>\n

    megaliths and mounds as<\/em><\/p>\n

    well as small stones from<\/em><\/p>\n

    several recent generations.<\/em><\/p>\n

    From this, and numerous<\/em><\/p>\n

    interviews, I conclude the<\/em><\/p>\n

    beam arrangement has<\/em><\/p>\n

    been a local secret for many<\/em><\/p>\n

    centuries and that it was<\/em><\/p>\n

    not \u201cdiscovered\u201d solely by<\/em><\/p>\n

    Professor O\u2019Kelly. The line:<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u201cBury me at Ros na Rig with<\/em><\/p>\n

    my face toward the sun\u201d now<\/em><\/p>\n

    makes perfect sense. Those<\/em><\/p>\n

    who would work for the<\/em><\/p>\n

    preservation of antiquities<\/em><\/p>\n

    should be aware that the area<\/em><\/p>\n

    is undergoing a great deal of<\/em><\/p>\n

    housing development. Slane<\/em><\/p>\n

    castle stands 1 mile to the<\/em><\/p>\n

    west.<\/em><\/p>\n

    with modern citizens of the planet Earth? The answer is<\/p>\n

    simple.<\/p>\n

    If you don\u2019t care about your history or your environ-<\/p>\n

    ment you probably won\u2019t care about these ancient places.<\/p>\n

    But if you are a sensitive person, in tune with the environ-<\/p>\n

    ment, and, if you care, even a little, about where you came<\/p>\n

    from\u2014both as an individual and as a human being\u2014you<\/p>\n

    might want to know about the stones of Ancient Europe,<\/p>\n

    and Ireland specifically.<\/p>\n

    In a poetic sense, as we shall see, each carved stone<\/p>\n

    is a technical manual for its own functionality. The idea<\/p>\n

    that the cairns, rings and mounds scattered all over<\/p>\n

    Western Europe were star computers used for navigation,<\/p>\n

    crop rotation, animal husbandry, and the tracking of<\/p>\n

    migratory animals (such as geese and salmon) seems<\/p>\n

    logical, even obvious to most modern observers, but for<\/p>\n

    centuries of Irish church goers, the aboriginal builders<\/p>\n

    were savages, the mounds were built as tombs and the<\/p>\n

    artistic symbols, carved into the stones, were senseless<\/p>\n

    doodles. This diffident and sadly persitent attitude puts<\/p>\n

    the mounds, their beams and their carvings in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

    This is all the more alarming when we realize that the<\/p>\n

    people who designed the great temples of Ireland used<\/p>\n

    no metal tools. The spirals and zigzags were carved with<\/p>\n

    flint chisels. The huge stones were erected with wooden<\/p>\n

    platforms and team labor, possibly even oxen.<\/p>\n

    In the following pages the reader will encounter beam<\/p>\n

    dials, shadow clocks and an entire vocabulary of strange<\/p>\n

    icons used in the construction of some of the oldest stone<\/p>\n

    buildings still standing anywhere on earth, But, to the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 13<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Foreword<\/em><\/p>\n

    xiii<\/p>\n

    Above: Knowth Winter Solstice sun line, continued from Newgrange.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Destruction by archaeology<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 14<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    xiv<\/p>\n

    people who developed these icons, the exact placement of<\/p>\n

    a stone was as important as its markings. The carvings on<\/p>\n

    the stones give us spe cific details on the measurements,<\/p>\n

    timing of events, and the activities of the cosmos at this<\/p>\n

    particular latitude and longitude, but the architecture,<\/p>\n

    also sends us a message\u2014least we forget these buildings<\/p>\n

    were probably designed for ceremonies and rituals. The<\/p>\n

    entire thrust of this book is to convey and interpret that<\/p>\n

    more subtle, architectural message and to attempt to<\/p>\n

    reconstruct, at least tentatively, the ceremonies.<\/p>\n

    The true Megaliths of Ireland (Greek, Mega = large,<\/p>\n

    lith = stone) were erected by flint using people who had<\/p>\n

    virtually no use for metal. Any culture which had not<\/p>\n

    progressed out of the \u2018Stone Age,\u2019 a phrase still commonly<\/p>\n

    used in a pejorative sense, was considered backward by<\/p>\n

    anthropologists until the 1970s, but in Ireland we see<\/p>\n

    the reverse. By the time bronze and iron tools were in<\/p>\n

    common use the light beam temples were in a collapsed<\/p>\n

    state, respected, but not maintained, even though they<\/p>\n

    still track numerous cosmic events with great accuracy.<\/p>\n

    The Newgrange beam alone would be amazing, but<\/p>\n

    when we learn that dozens of similar mounds and stone<\/p>\n

    circles, scattered all over the Atlantic rim, have been casting<\/p>\n

    shadows and beams over stone carvings every year for more<\/p>\n

    than six millennia, we must stand in awe. Obviously we<\/p>\n

    are looking directly into the furnace of an ancient, and as<\/p>\n

    yet unexplored, cosmology, an idea of creation supported<\/p>\n

    by a fully developed alphanumeric system. It is inspiring<\/p>\n

    to think that, like Black Holes in deepest space, we may<\/p>\n

    finally be looking at the beginning of things. In this case<\/p>\n

    we may be looking at the true building blocks of Western<\/p>\n

    Civilization\u2014a language and religion based on a shining<\/p>\n

    light emanating from the least understood, and possibly<\/p>\n

    the most enlightened, reaches of human history.<\/p>\n

    The Megalithic Mind<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The central chamber at Newgrange is dome shaped,<\/p>\n

    reinforced by, overlapping flagstones, one of the first<\/p>\n

    of its kind anywhere on earth. The Midwinter beam<\/p>\n

    phenomenon begins around 09:45 (Greenwich Mean<\/p>\n

    Time) and ends about twenty minutes later. This beam<\/p>\n

    was discovered in the eighteenth century, but not well<\/p>\n

    documented until 1966. When Newgrange was officially<\/p>\n

    opened to the public in the early 1970s a number of<\/p>\n

    researchers realized that the real treasure of the Irish<\/p>\n

    mounds is their art and architecture. Although little<\/p>\n

    material wealth was found, ongoing excavations were<\/p>\n

    Opposite Page:<\/em><\/p>\n

    Newgrange has<\/em><\/p>\n

    deteriorated more since it<\/em><\/p>\n

    was excavated in 1968 than<\/em><\/p>\n

    it has in the more than<\/em><\/p>\n

    five-thousand years since<\/em><\/p>\n

    it was built. Here Professor<\/em><\/p>\n

    Michael O\u2019Kelly inspects his<\/em><\/p>\n

    handywork. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 15<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Foreword<\/em><\/p>\n

    x v<\/p>\n

    Note the groove on stone foreground. This groove was originally flat and part of<\/em><\/p>\n

    a brilliant drainage system which brought filtered water into the interior of the<\/em><\/p>\n

    mound to be captured in large cachement basins. This purification process was<\/em><\/p>\n

    probably part of an ancient lightbeam and bread baking ritual of which O\u2019Kelly had<\/em><\/p>\n

    no knowledge. The grain was apparently ground in a sacred quern and rolled flat in<\/em><\/p>\n

    the west chamber, mixed with water from the large basin in the east chamber, baked<\/em><\/p>\n

    over hot stones in the North chamber and exposed to the Winter Solstice lightbeam.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The bread was then distributed to the waiting congregation. As at Eleusis and other<\/em><\/p>\n

    shrines of a later epoch, ergotamine and mushrooms (both immediately available<\/em><\/p>\n

    near the mound even today) were probably used in the recipe.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The iron reenforcement bars have rusted and are destroying the mound. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 16<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    xvi<\/p>\n

    exposing a veritable Louvre of Stone Age art. Traditional<\/p>\n

    archaeologists thought the carvings are decorative,<\/p>\n

    but we now know they are forms of writing based on<\/p>\n

    astronomy.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve been researching the ancient stones and circles,<\/p>\n

    since 1965, especially in conjunc tion with the Gothic<\/p>\n

    cathedrals, the Holy Grail ritual and the Glastonbury<\/p>\n

    mysteries, but after seeing the stones at Newgrange in<\/p>\n

    1978 I knew I would need to move to Ireland for an ex-<\/p>\n

    tensive sabbatical.<\/p>\n

    In 1979 I rented a large slate roofed house directly<\/p>\n

    across the river from the Boyne monuments. The location<\/p>\n

    of the twelve room house, known euphemistically as<\/p>\n

    Staleen Cottage, enabled research at close hand in any<\/p>\n

    weather. The old toll takers house became an observatory in<\/p>\n

    itself. It was ideally suited for light beam research because<\/p>\n

    it came furnished with a full set of Georgian shutters<\/p>\n

    which I quickly adjusted to act as apertures. With these<\/p>\n

    I could form my own lightbeams and watch them move<\/p>\n

    across the floor exactly as they did at the mounds across<\/p>\n

    the river.<\/p>\n

    Night sky observations were also ideal from this house.<\/p>\n

    The night glow from Dublin doesn\u2019t extend to the Boyne<\/p>\n

    Valley. In one hour of one night during the August meteor<\/p>\n

    shower I counted more than one hundred \u2018shooting stars\u2019<\/p>\n

    that appeared almost close enough to touch. When Venus<\/p>\n

    passes the mouth of Newgrange on a moonless night it<\/p>\n

    is bright enough to dimly illuminate the cauldron stone<\/p>\n

    in the inner chamber. On clear nights my daughter and<\/p>\n

    I could see the starry sky as the old astronomers must<\/p>\n

    have viewed it.<\/p>\n

    So where do we stand? Obviously there\u2019s a great mystery<\/p>\n

    going on at Newgrange and the other temple mounds<\/p>\n

    throughout Atlantic Europe, but we may never unravel<\/p>\n

    it if we don\u2019t change the way we look at ancient sacred<\/p>\n

    sites. When Newgrange was first fully exca vated, in the<\/p>\n

    late 1960s the public wasn\u2019t interested, unless of course<\/p>\n

    the place could be made out as a flying saucer landing site.<\/p>\n

    Explanations for the light beam were not forthcoming,<\/p>\n

    other than to acknowledge its existence. In a few cases<\/p>\n

    certain scientists, for rea sons known only to themselves,<\/p>\n

    denied the existence of the beam apparatus altogether. But<\/p>\n

    a new ethical sense of technology and science is growing<\/p>\n

    on the horizon. Recalibrated radiocarbon dates from the<\/p>\n

    fourth millen nium in Ireland, viz. 4200 B.C.E. have been<\/p>\n

    recorded for a work camp in the Boyne complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 17<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Foreword<\/em><\/p>\n

    xvii<\/p>\n

    The Megalithic<\/strong><\/p>\n

    World<\/strong><\/p>\n

    6000 Years ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Above: The Irish mound culture, specifically the mounds along the Boyne<\/em><\/p>\n

    River, seem to have originated as a building technology in Brittany and<\/em><\/p>\n

    Portugal The mounds in the area of Western France are carbon-dated to at<\/em><\/p>\n

    least 4200 BPE while the Irish mounds are decidedly younger. The seagoing<\/em><\/p>\n

    people around the Gulf of Morbihan based their civilization on a maritime<\/em><\/p>\n

    economy with oyster harvesting as an early form of agriculture. Oyster shell<\/em><\/p>\n

    middens have been found in Ireland as far inland as the top of Loughcrew.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The mounds located at Arzon, (see map) for example. feature Winter Solstice<\/em><\/p>\n

    beams and standing stone gnomons that keep time with the seasons. The<\/em><\/p>\n

    huge menhir at Locmariacour could be seen from many miles at sea and<\/em><\/p>\n

    the carvings at Gavr innis are almost identical to those found in the Boyne<\/em><\/p>\n

    Valley. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 18<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    xviii<\/p>\n

    Archaeology can no longer be used for propaganda in Ireland or anywhere else.<\/p>\n

    The crisis in Ulster is healing. The Republic of Ireland is now a state in the United<\/p>\n

    European Community, the old Punt notes are gone, replaced by Euros, and most of<\/p>\n

    the new tourists to Ireland will not tolerate a church bias or an IRA party line. The<\/p>\n

    megalithic veil is off and ultimately scientific eyes will see the stones and mounds for<\/p>\n

    what they are\u2014calendars, sun and moon dials, star computers, almanacs, places of<\/p>\n

    worship, and the jumping off spot for the worship of dead, but not, forgotten ancestors.<\/p>\n

    More importantly future generatons will see that they are not simple tombs.<\/p>\n

    Ireland is a small country, but she has. for many centuries, made a cultural impact<\/p>\n

    on the populations of Europe, Australia and North America and on world events. The<\/p>\n

    customs of a lost civilization remain gloriously on display along her shores and river<\/p>\n

    banks when they have been all but erased elsewhere. She is the preserve and archive<\/p>\n

    for Celtic studies not yet even conceived. Ireland leads the smaller countries of Europe<\/p>\n

    into the twenty-first century and yet this hypermodernity is reeking havoc with the<\/p>\n

    ancient stones. The archaeological sites are the keys to unlocking the most ancient<\/p>\n

    secrets of the Emerald Isle, so it seems important that we look afresh at the megaliths,<\/p>\n

    her oldest treasures. By combining modern anthropology, astroarchaeology, and<\/p>\n

    space age preservation techniques we may be able to reconstruct the old life-style and<\/p>\n

    save the antiquities from falsified interpretations by rearward facing academics. In so<\/p>\n

    doing, we may point the way to a new understanding of protoceltic cul tures in Western<\/p>\n

    Europe,<\/p>\n

    Above: Newgrange as it looked before excavations began.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 19<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    THE FIRsT ScIENTIsTs<\/strong><\/p>\n

    E arly humans used the shadows of trees to tell the<\/p>\n

    passage of time. No shadow indicated noon.<\/p>\n

    the length of a shadow told the season of the year \u2014 short<\/p>\n

    shadows told when to hunt, long shadows indicated when to<\/p>\n

    migrate. As we evolved so did our ability to interpret the nature<\/p>\n

    of light, its shadows and beams and its curious ability to change<\/p>\n

    colors. This fascination with light may well be the pulse of human<\/p>\n

    evolution and the first real demonstration of scientific thinking. It<\/p>\n

    took thousands of years of human meditation and research before<\/p>\n

    someone learned how to contain light, how to shift it and build<\/p>\n

    stone temples that could capture and amrk it and make the passage<\/p>\n

    of the seasons into marks cut into trees, leather and stones.<\/p>\n

    Through the last Ice Age, which ended somewhat abruptly<\/p>\n

    around 10,000 bc, our species carried elaborately fashoned, power<\/p>\n

    sticks, and batons made of ivory and bone. Somne of these objects<\/p>\n

    were hunting and fishing implements, others were ceremonial<\/p>\n

    calendars. These were handed down in families as sacred objects.<\/p>\n

    As we evolved further we made refined horological observations<\/p>\n

    and recalibrated the carvings on the batons to allow more precise<\/p>\n

    readings. For the first time in human consciousness we could look<\/p>\n

    into the future and make predictions.<\/p>\n

    By the time Newgrange was finsihed, approximately 3200<\/p>\n

    bpe, the carvings on the batons had evolved into symbols of<\/p>\n

    divine power, each sacred \u201cword\u201d associated, at the tribal level,<\/p>\n

    with light and dark, thunder, lightning the rainbow, and life<\/p>\n

    itself. Eventually, as we settled, notches in wood and bone grew<\/p>\n

    into large stone diagrams. The diurnal rhythms of everyday life<\/p>\n

    reflected the motions of the sun and moon. All fire was sacred<\/p>\n

    fire. All hearths went cold one day each year and the fire was<\/p>\n

    rekindled from a sacred flame sparked by the sun\u2019s concentrated<\/p>\n

    rays on Winter Solstice.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 20<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 0<\/p>\n

    The Shadow Dial<\/strong><\/p>\n

    At Newgrange and the mounds that proceeded it, the carved<\/p>\n

    baton grew into a more complex technology. Euclid knew<\/p>\n

    how to construct a similar stick and taught the entire pag-<\/p>\n

    eant of Western Civilization how to use it for navigation<\/p>\n

    and building. He called his shadow caster a \u201cGnomon,\u201d<\/p>\n

    pronounced \u2018NO MON\u2019, but no one is certain just where<\/p>\n

    Euclid dug up the idea. Tradition tells us he derived his<\/p>\n

    astronomy from the Babylonians who derived theirs from<\/p>\n

    the unrecorded annals of prehistory, but now, in the light<\/p>\n

    of new discoveries, we may have an alternative source for<\/p>\n

    our sacred geometry. The Babylonians may have developed<\/p>\n

    a calendar about 3500 years ago, but the mound builders<\/p>\n

    reached the same insight 2000 years earlier. If there is a<\/p>\n

    connection at all it went from West to East. This may sound<\/p>\n

    revolutionary, but it becomes obvious the more you explore<\/p>\n

    the megaliths, especially the French and Irish stones.<\/p>\n

    Sometime between the people of the Ice Ages and the<\/p>\n

    Greeks the gnomon was formed from a stone and embedded<\/p>\n

    in the ground, for permanent use. I assume this happened<\/p>\n

    about the time humans began to settle into villages. This was<\/p>\n

    done because large numbers of people needed to consult the<\/p>\n

    stones on a daily basis . But the idea of the portable baton<\/p>\n

    never died. The magic wand, the Crosier of Papal power,<\/p>\n

    Aaron\u2019s Rod and King Arthur\u2019s Excalibur are still with us<\/p>\n

    as symbolic reminders of our evolutionary trek.<\/p>\n

    We must therefore look carefully at our ancestors who<\/p>\n

    replaced the wandering stick with the heavy stone, because<\/p>\n

    this single act may have revolutionized human conscious-<\/p>\n

    ness. Once the stone was planted true democracy began<\/p>\n

    to flourish. Each generation had access to the exact same<\/p>\n

    information, for hundreds of generations. According to a<\/p>\n

    number of authorities access to knowledge is the heartbeat<\/p>\n

    of any democracy.<\/p>\n

    Gnomon or clock stones called \u201cstanding stones\u201d began<\/p>\n

    to appear in Western Europe about 7000 years ago. But as<\/p>\n

    time went on the single stone became part of more complex<\/p>\n

    stone monuments. As society became more complex so did<\/p>\n

    the clock. This expansion of time consciousness correlates<\/p>\n

    neatly with an archaeological time frame known as the New<\/p>\n

    Stone Age or Neolithic Age, (Greek, neo = new, lithos =<\/p>\n

    stone).<\/p>\n

    The generally accepted image of the people of the Neo-<\/p>\n

    lithic as barbarians is misleading and highly prejudicial. The<\/p>\n

    romantics paint an empty picture full of adventure while the<\/p>\n

    severe of mind persist in thinking of any era prior to W.W.II<\/p>\n

    Above: The Blanchard<\/em><\/p>\n

    Bone, an early portable<\/em><\/p>\n

    computer, circa 32,000 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 21<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 1<\/p>\n

    Above: Blanchard<\/em><\/p>\n

    bone reverse<\/em><\/p>\n

    showing moon<\/em><\/p>\n

    computer as loop<\/em><\/p>\n

    pattern.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Detail below.<\/em><\/p>\n

    as barbaric. Many scholars, who should be better informed,<\/p>\n

    see the stone masons of that era as rough survivalists eking<\/p>\n

    out a living on meager grub while huddling together<\/p>\n

    in a hut or constantly looking for shelter.<\/p>\n

    Their only other activities are thought to be<\/p>\n

    rituals of fertility accompanied by human<\/p>\n

    sacrifice in order to placate seasonal dei-<\/p>\n

    ties. Interpretations of their remains have<\/p>\n

    been clouded by a general supposition that<\/p>\n

    all Neolithic activities had some kind of<\/p>\n

    magico-religious motive intelligible only<\/p>\n

    to a paternalistic priest class and otherwise<\/p>\n

    indecipherable.<\/p>\n

    We now realize, the opposite is true.<\/p>\n

    The stone builders were as intelligent as us.<\/p>\n

    As a matter of fact they were \u2018us.\u2019 The most<\/p>\n

    recent DNA evidence shows that they possessed<\/p>\n

    alert and inquisitive minds capable of making and<\/p>\n

    recording empirical observations. It was neither difficult<\/p>\n

    nor unnatural for them to take an interest in cosmic events<\/p>\n

    and in the nature of light itself.<\/p>\n

    The Beam Computer<\/strong><\/p>\n

    One hundred and thirty-five thousand years ago a large<\/p>\n

    population of hunter-gatherers, generally of short stature,<\/p>\n

    with various shades of skin, began to move closer to the<\/p>\n

    Atlantic ocean from North Africa and points in Central<\/p>\n

    Europe. A few travelers also arrived from North America<\/p>\n

    Over the many Ice Ages the large boned Neanderthal<\/p>\n

    types lived side-by side with these smaller people, who are<\/p>\n

    often called Cro-Magnon, so that, by the time the preg-<\/p>\n

    nant mare was painted on the ceiling at Lascaux \u2014 about<\/p>\n

    35,000 years ago, a fully integrated type, indistinguishable<\/p>\n

    from modern humans, (US) emerged. This assumption is<\/p>\n

    genetically controversial and is still being debated, but<\/p>\n

    the site maps and the most modern computer science<\/p>\n

    makes it certain that both Neanderthal and Cromagnon<\/p>\n

    lived in Europe at the same time, until the glaciers<\/p>\n

    receeded. Both populations were adept at all forms<\/p>\n

    of hunting and trapping, but less typically, Croma-<\/p>\n

    gnon and the artisanss of the caves in Franbce and<\/p>\n

    Spain, developed a highly refined sense of curiosity or<\/p>\n

    more specifically an intuitive sense of true scientific<\/p>\n

    understanding. From their constant observation and<\/p>\n

    recording of data, especially about matters of astronomy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 22<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 2<\/p>\n

    they learned how to calculate the phases of the moon, the<\/p>\n

    orbit of Venus, the rising of Sirius, lunar and solar eclipse<\/p>\n

    cycles and much more. They were also capable of inventing<\/p>\n

    their own star constellations, some of which we still use<\/p>\n

    \u2014 the Great and Lesser Bear, Casseopea and her consort<\/p>\n

    Cepheus and Pegasus the horse come to mind.<\/p>\n

    These early scientists led a paradoxical life. They were<\/p>\n

    able to predict the exact moment of Winter, but the harsh<\/p>\n

    realities of nature forced them to hunt, fish and gather food<\/p>\n

    everyday. An illness we now consider only bothersome, such<\/p>\n

    as a common cold or a bout of dysentery, often proved fatal.<\/p>\n

    But this is only a paradox from our point of view. To the<\/p>\n

    people of the caves and forests knowing the cycles of the<\/p>\n

    reindeer, elk, pony and salmon meant something beyond<\/p>\n

    mere life and death. To Homo sapiens novus <\/em>(new man) death<\/p>\n

    and life were parts of the same continuum and harmony in<\/p>\n

    all things was the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

    The hunter-astronomers of the dawn of humanity spent<\/p>\n

    their nights watching the stars and correlating celestial<\/p>\n

    events with animal behavior. They spent a great deal of<\/p>\n

    time painting animal totems, hand signs, symbols and<\/p>\n

    counting techniques on cave walls undoubtedly to act<\/p>\n

    as teaching aides in their initiation rituals. Most rituals<\/p>\n

    were conducted at times set forth by celestial activities and<\/p>\n

    usually included the group observation of a given celestial<\/p>\n

    event.<\/p>\n

    Using the patterns and cycles of the stars, planets, sun<\/p>\n

    Below: A similar<\/em><\/p>\n

    dial structure<\/em><\/p>\n

    located at Cairn<\/em><\/p>\n

    X1 Patrickstown,<\/em><\/p>\n

    Loughcrew.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The clock stone at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Knowth (East kerb).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 23<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 3<\/p>\n

    and moon as a rational backdrop, the cave painters began to<\/p>\n

    amass a systematic database which they recorded as notches<\/p>\n

    in their sacred batons. Now we realize what the notches really<\/p>\n

    mean, but as recently as the mid-twentieth century, this idea<\/p>\n

    would have been preposterous. The notch matrix helped<\/p>\n

    them build a memory system linked to the stars in legend<\/p>\n

    and song. This database grew into iconography and a form<\/p>\n

    of writing emerged. This could not have occured withoutthe<\/p>\n

    use of complex speech and language or at least an elaborate<\/p>\n

    hand signal inventory. It also implies the existence of a well<\/p>\n

    developed system of number and count\u2026the basis for all<\/p>\n

    science.<\/p>\n

    Cave and stone temple art, like the art of the cathedral,<\/p>\n

    is hypnotic. It is instructional and available for anyone with<\/p>\n

    the fortitude to venture deep into the cavern. The art at<\/p>\n

    Above: A phallic<\/em><\/p>\n

    megalith and a<\/em><\/p>\n

    Victorian church<\/em><\/p>\n

    compete for souls<\/em><\/p>\n

    at an ancient<\/em><\/p>\n

    Donnegal<\/em><\/p>\n

    crossroads. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 25<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 5<\/p>\n

    rather, a large body of story and legend, symbol and oracle,<\/p>\n

    ritual and magical ceremony and above all as tronomy. It is<\/p>\n

    not cult art. This art, with its horse, fish, bison and human<\/p>\n

    hands rendered by hundreds of anonymous artists, represents<\/p>\n

    an Atlantic cosmology, an early explanation of the creation<\/p>\n

    of the universe.<\/p>\n

    The Lascaux cosmology confirms the belief that a mother<\/p>\n

    Goddess working with the male diety or God of lightening<\/p>\n

    and light con trolled natural events. This Goddess, in the<\/p>\n

    form of a pregnant woman, pregnant mare or spawning<\/p>\n

    salmon, brought forth all life. Furthermore, this Goddess<\/p>\n

    cos mology parallels, in a poetic sense, what we now call<\/p>\n

    the Compressed Seed hypothesis, the theory of continual<\/p>\n

    creation. The Everything Theory 3<\/p>\n

    Nine thousand years ago, as the glaciers melted at the<\/p>\n

    end of the W\u00fcrm Epoch, a garden biosphere grew beyond<\/p>\n

    simple food supply in Western Europe. The cork oak forests<\/p>\n

    in Spain spread for hundreds of miles in all directions. The<\/p>\n

    Dordogne, in France, adjacent to many of the cave dwellings<\/p>\n

    and ritual sites, must have been idyllic. Ireland was an island<\/p>\n

    paradise, if you like your islands cold and windy. Hot geysers<\/p>\n

    bubbled up from the mud on the west coast and caves were<\/p>\n

    formed as the glacier melted down into the limestone.<\/p>\n

    Rivers also swelled from glacial runoff, new tributaries cut<\/p>\n

    across the landscape. Fish, wild fruit and seed grains were<\/p>\n

    plentiful. Migratory routes to the sea along the rivers grew<\/p>\n

    into trade routes. Amber and jet and jade ax heads, as well<\/p>\n

    as utilitarian tools and commodities like salt and herbs, were<\/p>\n

    traded among migrating populations as were legends and<\/p>\n

    song.<\/p>\n

    Shrouded in mystery until recently, these migrating<\/p>\n

    men and women were the fathers and mothers of the first<\/p>\n

    true civilization in Western Europe. Their diaspora lasted<\/p>\n

    about three thousand years between the final paintings at<\/p>\n

    Lascaux and the first Mesolithic hearths in Ireland about<\/p>\n

    7000 years ago, but with them traveled the wisdom of the<\/p>\n

    shadow sticks and the knowledge of the Goddess.<\/p>\n

    The ritual placement of specially prepared stones aligned<\/p>\n

    to specific celestial bodies and incorporated into permanent<\/p>\n

    dwellings began about 7000 years ago, but we must ask,<\/p>\n

    \u201cAre the markings on the stones in Ireland directly linked<\/p>\n

    to the Ice Age cave painters?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 26<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 6<\/p>\n

    Left: The Great Cross<\/em><\/p>\n

    and Round Tower at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Monasterboice, near<\/em><\/p>\n

    Drogheda in County<\/em><\/p>\n

    Louth.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Dark Age priests<\/em><\/p>\n

    burned their ladders<\/em><\/p>\n

    to protect illuminated<\/em><\/p>\n

    manuscripts from the<\/em><\/p>\n

    heathen Vikings.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Some of the great<\/em><\/p>\n

    crosses are made from<\/em><\/p>\n

    the same limestone<\/em><\/p>\n

    material found at<\/em><\/p>\n

    the temple mounds<\/em><\/p>\n

    and may have been<\/em><\/p>\n

    carved directly from<\/em><\/p>\n

    those ancient stones to<\/em><\/p>\n

    preserve the continuity<\/em><\/p>\n

    between pagan and<\/em><\/p>\n

    Christian beliefs.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Opposite Page:<\/em><\/p>\n

    Notebook page<\/em><\/p>\n

    showing sites explored<\/em><\/p>\n

    by the author, Martin<\/em><\/p>\n

    Brennan and Jack<\/em><\/p>\n

    Roberts. The large<\/em><\/p>\n

    area to the West and<\/em><\/p>\n

    Southwest is currently<\/em><\/p>\n

    under study by<\/em><\/p>\n

    Roberts.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Lascaux, for example, isn\u2019t simple animism, it is, The answer<\/p>\n

    is a resounding Yes! The markings on the stones in Ireland,<\/p>\n

    France and Spain, as well as on artifacts found in Sweden<\/p>\n

    and England did not come from Egypt or Mesopotamia,<\/p>\n

    but probably grew, as a separate system, from a long tenure<\/p>\n

    of astronomical observations conducted by an isolated<\/p>\n

    Atlantic rim population, a population which probably had<\/p>\n

    no contact with the East or Africa until after the glaciers<\/p>\n

    had fully receded and until Bronze Age travelers from<\/p>\n

    Central Europe arrived seeking ore deposists.<\/p>\n

    These aboriginal people linked the universe and their<\/p>\n

    religion by an unwritten code, at least it wasn\u2019t written in<\/p>\n

    Greek or Latin. This does not mean they were primitive<\/p>\n

    or uncommunicative. Their knowledge of the universe was<\/p>\n

    memorized and passed down from generation to generation<\/p>\n

    by signs, hand signals, gestures, whistles, body language<\/p>\n

    and semaphore. Writing, in the Mediterranean sense, was<\/p>\n

    not necessary. The signs and symbols they used to depict the<\/p>\n

    events of heaven and earth in stone, the astral markings we<\/p>\n

    shall investigate later in this book, may well constitute a form<\/p>\n

    of writing. The earliest form of writng yet discovered.<\/p>\n

    The hunter-astronomers of Western Europe, once forced<\/p>\n

    to huddle away from the ice and snow, began to move toward<\/p>\n

    the river mouths and pasture land around 12,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

    This massive and slow moving diaspora included groups<\/p>\n

    who settled in England and Ireland. As they resettled a new<\/p>\n

    cultural style \u2014 more scientific, less superstitious \u2014 began<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 27<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 7<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 28<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 8<\/p>\n

    to form, but nothing of the old ways was lost or forgotten.<\/p>\n

    The legends of the ancestors traveled along, like time ghosts<\/p>\n

    (zeitgeists). The Celts even retained this concept in their<\/p>\n

    most esoteric initiation as the Dagda, the zeitgeist who<\/p>\n

    follows along. Anyone familiar with Celtic lore will have<\/p>\n

    heard of the cauldron of the Dagda and anyone who visits<\/p>\n

    the deep country in Ireland will see through time into<\/p>\n

    a fantasy land. This newly reforested island, once covered<\/p>\n

    with gnarled trees, dripping brooks and huge standing<\/p>\n

    stones, hides the quest for tribal democracy and individual<\/p>\n

    freedoms so crucial to the laws of the Goddess, the sacred<\/p>\n

    oak and the Druids.4<\/p>\n

    The sacred landscape in Ireland<\/p>\n

    features hundreds of cairns and larger<\/p>\n

    mounds decorated with huge carved<\/p>\n

    stones, each depicting an equinox<\/p>\n

    or solstice, or are designed to track<\/p>\n

    the moon and the sun or stars<\/p>\n

    in some fashion, but the most<\/p>\n

    spectacular mounds yet unearthed<\/p>\n

    lie just North of Dublin in the Boyne<\/p>\n

    Valley. There we find three major<\/p>\n

    mounds and dozens of satellite mounds<\/p>\n

    in a spectacular setting. The most famous<\/p>\n

    of these is Newgrange, because Newgrange<\/p>\n

    has been open to the public for almost a century, but two<\/p>\n

    other mounds, Dowth the tallest and Knowth the most<\/p>\n

    complex, can easily be seen from Newgrange. A second<\/p>\n

    series of mounds can be found at Loughcrew, about thirty<\/p>\n

    miles inland from the Boyne Valley and, if those aren\u2019t<\/p>\n

    sufficient Ireland boasts more undiscovered Neolithic stone<\/p>\n

    alignments than any place on earth.<\/p>\n

    The dating of the carved stones is very controversial.<\/p>\n

    The latest inter pretations of corrected radiocarbon dates<\/p>\n

    place Knowth at 3950 b.c. \u00b1 200 and Newgrange around<\/p>\n

    3300 b.c. In other words Newgrange, at least 5000 years<\/p>\n

    old, straddles the old Stone Age and the earliest Bronze<\/p>\n

    Age, while Knowth and a third mound known as Dowth,<\/p>\n

    were probably built around 6000 years ago. Photolumi-<\/p>\n

    nescence readings of ceramic chards from work sites, and<\/p>\n

    dates taken from pollen spores found beneath the largest<\/p>\n

    stones supports the fourth millennium hypothesis.<\/p>\n

    Aristotle\u2019s Foot<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Be they tombs or computers , the mysterious henge monu-<\/p>\n

    ments and tumuli of the Neolithic era are obviously linked<\/p>\n

    by astronomy and precise geographic positioning. Some<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 29<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    2 9<\/p>\n

    Below and Opposite:<\/em><\/p>\n

    Intersecting circles on<\/em><\/p>\n

    these stones at Knowth<\/em><\/p>\n

    denote the relationships<\/em><\/p>\n

    between cycles of<\/em><\/p>\n

    celestial events.<\/em><\/p>\n

    researchers even think that dowsing with a hazel rod was<\/p>\n

    used to find an ideal location before construction began,<\/p>\n

    but however they were sited we can not deny that each<\/p>\n

    major monument is situated with a commanding view of<\/p>\n

    at least one horizon and, from this, we can assume they<\/p>\n

    were used to mark solar, steller and lunar events at that<\/p>\n

    horizon. But in many cases the mounds themselves form<\/p>\n

    an horizon for other mounds situated nearby. From this<\/p>\n

    we can assume multiple horizons were used to observe<\/p>\n

    multiple celestial events, and that contrary to old school<\/p>\n

    thinking, the mounds were linked and designed to interact<\/p>\n

    with one another like an, electronic or neural network. One<\/p>\n

    could assume further that in order to pass-on the observa-<\/p>\n

    tion to another generation or family member, some form<\/p>\n

    of standard measurement must have been used.<\/p>\n

    Our standard measurements are derived from centuries<\/p>\n

    old British units, but these, in turn, were supposedly derived<\/p>\n

    from Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek developments. Now<\/p>\n

    we may have to look to our own western traditions to trace<\/p>\n

    the roots of our common measurements. Let\u2019s start with<\/p>\n

    the foot.<\/p>\n

    We know that the megalithic temples were built long<\/p>\n

    before the Roman roads or the Pyramids, so we must<\/p>\n

    assume the Neolithic builders had standard measures of<\/p>\n

    their own, perhaps measurements derived from Paleolithic<\/p>\n

    hunters. What were these measurements? And how were<\/p>\n

    they derived?<\/p>\n

    The megaliths weren\u2019t just dumped in a circle and spread<\/p>\n

    around willy-nilly. Recent discoveries hint that, like their<\/p>\n

    British and French counterparts, the megalithic temples<\/p>\n

    of Ireland may be linked by a common standard based on<\/p>\n

    human anatomy. There<\/p>\n

    are many disagreements<\/p>\n

    between scholars as to<\/p>\n

    what these measurements<\/p>\n

    represent, but most would<\/p>\n

    agree that some aspects<\/p>\n

    of the human body were<\/p>\n

    used because the system<\/p>\n

    is clearly linked to sacred<\/p>\n

    ceremonies. We should also<\/p>\n

    remember that 6000 years<\/p>\n

    ago, most tribal groups<\/p>\n

    were heterogeneous, and<\/p>\n

    looked pretty much the<\/p>\n

    same in terms of height and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 30<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 0<\/p>\n

    girth. Thus the sites are laid out in a standardized manner,<\/p>\n

    and, according to a growing number of researchers, the<\/p>\n

    sacred aspect \u2014 the common denominator in most of the<\/p>\n

    locations\u2014 is a sense of proportion derived from observing<\/p>\n

    celestial activity and measuring the average human form.<\/p>\n

    According to Brennan, the long measures between sites<\/p>\n

    (the distances we would express in miles and kilometers)<\/p>\n

    correlates with the short measures between stones (our<\/p>\n

    yards and meters) and the even shorter measures between<\/p>\n

    carvings on the same stone (our inches and centimeters).<\/p>\n

    These shorter distances ,in turn seem to correlate with the<\/p>\n

    length of the human arm, finger, hand and foot. In other<\/p>\n

    words each standard is a subset of the larger distance above<\/p>\n

    it and each standard can be combined in various ways to<\/p>\n

    create a design, a house or a temple, which in turn points<\/p>\n

    to a sacred ideal.<\/p>\n

    Unfortunately Brennan\u2019s research was condemned<\/p>\n

    without trial by a kangaroo court of local academics who<\/p>\n

    were protecting their own turf. They claimed Brennan<\/p>\n

    lacked quantitative proofs but, in fact, Brennan did have<\/p>\n

    quantitative evidence, reams of it. The main rub, as it came<\/p>\n

    to pass, was the fact that Brennan wrote for an alternative<\/p>\n

    and New Age audience. Brennan\u2019s main opposition was, as it<\/p>\n

    turned out, violently envious. Unfortunately almost no one,<\/p>\n

    with the exception of myself and Jack Roberts, operating<\/p>\n

    within a close circle of Brennan\u2019s friends, has bothered to<\/p>\n

    chase down his hypothesis. Guess what? Most of Brennan\u2019s<\/p>\n

    insights still stand. When you see the stones like Brennan<\/p>\n

    saw them, as marquees \u2014 as sign posts to the old world<\/p>\n

    \u2014 an \u2018intuitive\u2019 bal ance emerges. The precise proportional<\/p>\n

    distances between Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange, for<\/p>\n

    example, cannot be ignored, assuming the official survey<\/p>\n

    maps are accurate.<\/p>\n

    Although we can not pin point the measurements until<\/p>\n

    a comprehensive computer based survey can be carried out,<\/p>\n

    anyone who spends time investigating the megaliths senses<\/p>\n

    that the megalith carvers were tracking the sun, moon, stars<\/p>\n

    and planets and that they must have had a standard canon<\/p>\n

    of measurement dictated by the relationship between the<\/p>\n

    size of the planet, the relative location of the observer on<\/p>\n

    the planet, the angle and distance of the heavenly body ob-<\/p>\n

    served and the average size of the hand or foot. Since there<\/p>\n

    are minor variations in measurement between English and<\/p>\n

    Irish sites and since there are degrees of difference between<\/p>\n

    early Neolithic and Bronze Age sites, there must have been<\/p>\n

    more than one measurement over time, but in the long run,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 31<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 1<\/p>\n

    these measurements were based on two components, one<\/p>\n

    heavenly and one earthly. In other words, the Neolithic<\/p>\n

    measuring system wasn\u2019t simply celestial, it contained tool<\/p>\n

    making and commercial applications. These measurements,<\/p>\n

    along with language and song, provide the social cement<\/p>\n

    that bonds a society into a working civilization. We may<\/p>\n

    also assume that architectural and commercial measure-<\/p>\n

    ments, are, of necessity, continuations of each other. A foot<\/p>\n

    is made up of twelve inches, a yard is composed of three<\/p>\n

    feet.<\/p>\n

    If such measures exist they must probably also extend<\/p>\n

    to the equivalent of a mile and a multiple of miles and<\/p>\n

    downward to something like an inch or even millimeters.<\/p>\n

    Brennan, drawing from the ancient sun dial builders,<\/p>\n

    called these microscopic intervals \u2018verniers\u2019 while the larger<\/p>\n

    measures he called Alpha and Beta measures. Brennan\u2019s<\/p>\n

    tiny ????? measure is 1\/24 of an English \u201cFoot.\u201d or .75%<\/p>\n

    of an American standard inch. His ???? measure is based<\/p>\n

    Above: The relative<\/em><\/p>\n

    locations of Megalithic<\/em><\/p>\n

    sites prior to the<\/em><\/p>\n

    arrival of Indo-<\/em><\/p>\n

    Europeans. The<\/em><\/p>\n

    proximal geodesic<\/em><\/p>\n

    clusters of Megalithic<\/em><\/p>\n

    monuments correlates<\/em><\/p>\n

    highly with the Genetic<\/em><\/p>\n

    migration of a genetic<\/em><\/p>\n

    variation known as<\/em><\/p>\n

    the R1b haplotype, a<\/em><\/p>\n

    root chromosome type<\/em><\/p>\n

    that seems to be born<\/em><\/p>\n

    by anyone with Celtic<\/em><\/p>\n

    ancestry. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 32<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 2<\/p>\n

    Left: The man who<\/em><\/p>\n

    saved the Megaliths.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Alexander Thom in<\/em><\/p>\n

    Brittany. A respected<\/em><\/p>\n

    Engineer from<\/em><\/p>\n

    Scotland, Thom<\/em><\/p>\n

    survived harsh<\/em><\/p>\n

    criticism to prove a<\/em><\/p>\n

    standard measurment<\/em><\/p>\n

    existed for most of<\/em><\/p>\n

    the sites he studied.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Thom and his son<\/em><\/p>\n

    have measured most<\/em><\/p>\n

    major megalithic sites<\/em><\/p>\n

    in Western Europe<\/em><\/p>\n

    and proved the<\/em><\/p>\n

    existance of standard<\/em><\/p>\n

    measurments.<\/em><\/p>\n

    He postulated a<\/em><\/p>\n

    Megalithic Yard as<\/em><\/p>\n

    early as 1957.<\/em><\/p>\n

    on a foot of 13.28 inches.<\/p>\n

    We can look for these measures with modern computers<\/p>\n

    and probably, with a little tweaking, we can find them<\/p>\n

    without leaving our desktops, but if we reject the standard<\/p>\n

    measurement hypothesis without testing it at all, we have<\/p>\n

    committed a cardinal error in scientific method, we have<\/p>\n

    let skepticism turn to cynicism.<\/p>\n

    Over the past four decades Alexander Thom and his<\/p>\n

    son Archibald, both highly respected engineers, spent most<\/p>\n

    of their spare time walking the old track ways conducting<\/p>\n

    surveys of the various rings and mounds. In the process<\/p>\n

    they have amassed a body of convincing data and not a few<\/p>\n

    adver saries, yet none of their antagonists have come up with<\/p>\n

    opposing theories. 5<\/p>\n

    According to Thom the distances between the temples<\/p>\n

    and the distances used in their actual construction follow<\/p>\n

    subtle rules of measurement based on geodesic proportions,<\/p>\n

    such as the circumference of the pole or the earth\u2019s equator<\/p>\n

    or a mathematical relationship with the moon. The Thoms<\/p>\n

    call their most important measurement the \u201cMegalithic<\/p>\n

    Yard\u201d or MY, a Neolithic standard measure of 2.722 feet,<\/p>\n

    slightly shorter than the American yard. This is roughly<\/p>\n

    equivalent to three human feet or the distance between a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 33<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 3<\/p>\n

    weaver\u2019s hand and nose with arm outstretched.<\/p>\n

    Brennan worked in Ireland Mexico, japan and Ireland.<\/p>\n

    Thom hardly worked in Ireland at all, but the two theories<\/p>\n

    are more harmonic than dissonant and a few seminars could<\/p>\n

    easily clear up the debate. Critics can not logically assert<\/p>\n

    that both theories are invalid and that no measurement<\/p>\n

    exists at all simply because the two men found slightly<\/p>\n

    different standards in different locales 6<\/p>\n

    ARough Estimate<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The flat-land thinkers, when the thnk at all, assume<\/p>\n

    the rough stone temples of the megalithic cultures were<\/p>\n

    measured locally with no link to an archaic or standard<\/p>\n

    measurement system. To the technocratic mind, diurnal<\/p>\n

    mea sures like \u201cNoon, Sunrise and Sundown, are derived<\/p>\n

    from an elaborate corporate consensus. From our \u201cbetters\u201d<\/p>\n

    we receive such magnanimous, and I dare say, \u201carbitrary\u201d,<\/p>\n

    measuring units as the \u201cinch,\u201d the Imperial gallon and the<\/p>\n

    British Thermal Unit, (BTU). However, when a peasant<\/p>\n

    decides he or she wants to measure some thing, the time of<\/p>\n

    day or a yard of cloth for example, he or she does not run<\/p>\n

    over to the university to make a per fect cut, instead they<\/p>\n

    consult a stick that is based on an ancestral measurement<\/p>\n

    or they pull out a length from a bolt in a gesture of body<\/p>\n

    language that can best be described as \u201cintuitive.\u201d Aristo-<\/p>\n

    Above: The genetic<\/em><\/p>\n

    haplotype R1b, common<\/em><\/p>\n

    to all people with Celtic<\/em><\/p>\n

    and Basque ancestry,<\/em><\/p>\n

    correlates highly with the<\/em><\/p>\n

    construction of Mega-<\/em><\/p>\n

    lithic rings and temple<\/em><\/p>\n

    complexes in Western<\/em><\/p>\n

    Europe. This diaspora<\/em><\/p>\n

    took place in the early<\/em><\/p>\n

    Neolithic era in Spain<\/em><\/p>\n

    and Brittany and mi-<\/em><\/p>\n

    grated north by land and<\/em><\/p>\n

    sea routes, bringing the<\/em><\/p>\n

    construction of the Star<\/em><\/p>\n

    Temples to Ireland. This<\/em><\/p>\n

    included the knowledge of<\/em><\/p>\n

    celestial worship and oth-<\/em><\/p>\n

    er aboriginal shamanic<\/em><\/p>\n

    practices accumulated<\/em><\/p>\n

    over several millennia. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 34<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 4<\/p>\n

    telians are loathe to accept this, but it has been going on since Homo Sapiens <\/em>first placed<\/p>\n

    a bet or made a deal. Rough estimates, form, after all, the roots of all economies because<\/p>\n

    they are quick, while more precise figures require far more calculating skill .<\/p>\n

    The ideal intuitive measurement, can be called the \u201cPeasant\u2019s Foot.\u201d This theoretical<\/p>\n

    measurement is a memorized ethical standard, a rough estimate, agreed upon by all par-<\/p>\n

    ties to the deal. The Peasant\u2019s Foot is an observed \u201cphenomenological\u201d measurement, not<\/p>\n

    a technological standard. A foot, to a peasant, is a bare foot with mud gushing through<\/p>\n

    the toes on the floor of a rude hut; but it is, still and all, the foot of the average person<\/p>\n

    in the community, a valid legal measure. In nature everything remains in scale, so why<\/p>\n

    should one species dominate another by standardizing unnatural measures, weights and<\/p>\n

    scales which support gluttony? Is it not better to conform to cosmic measurments, cycles<\/p>\n

    and forces than to delude ourselves into thinking we are somehow superior to nature?<\/p>\n

    Above: A Stone Circle or \u201charrespill,\u201d at Okabe, one of thousands located in<\/em><\/p>\n

    the Basque Pyrenees. These sites were founded as celestial, lunar and solar<\/em><\/p>\n

    observatories starting in the late Ice Age. These stone computers evolved into<\/em><\/p>\n

    permanent temples until the late Bronze Age. The genetic make-up of the builders<\/em><\/p>\n

    correlates highly with that of Cro-Magnon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 35<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The First Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 5<\/p>\n

    Above: A perfectly shaped and heavily worked dolman with a massive convex<\/em><\/p>\n

    capstone at Anta Santa Marta, near Evora in Portugal. This structure was designed<\/em><\/p>\n

    to reflect sun and moon light onto the flat undersurface via reflections and special<\/em><\/p>\n

    angles. The convex side facing upward is also specifically crafted to perform<\/em><\/p>\n

    dedicated functions, although we are not yet sure what those functions are. This<\/em><\/p>\n

    structure antedates most of the Irish mounds but seems to correlate with the time<\/em><\/p>\n

    line for Dowth and or Knowth, circa 3800 BPE. Generally the manpower needed<\/em><\/p>\n

    to construct this massive site would exceed hundreds of workers and since the area<\/em><\/p>\n

    was never heavily populated, one can speculate that the builders used domesticated<\/em><\/p>\n

    oxen and\/or ponies to do some of the work. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 36<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 6<\/p>\n

    The Aristotelian Foot is an unnatural measurment posing as something grand. The<\/p>\n

    Greek foot was one part in 360,000 of a degree of equatorial longitude according to the<\/p>\n

    assumption that the Earth is divided (arbitrarily) into 365.5 degrees in the circle of the<\/p>\n

    equator. This is supposed to be one degree for each day, but it isn\u2019t exact. Neither is the<\/p>\n

    Peasant\u2019s Foot.<\/p>\n

    The problem with relying totally on the astronomical measurement scheme is that it<\/p>\n

    wasn\u2019t always used by the peasants who did most of the work on the stones, and it isn\u2019t<\/p>\n

    much more accurate than the peasant\u2019s method anyway. Democracy of a primitive sort,<\/p>\n

    was the norm throughout Ireland until the Bronze <\/em>Age; so we must look to the measure-<\/p>\n

    ments of human limbs and other body parts as the first \u201creal\u201d standards. The tem ple<\/p>\n

    builders did use measuring sticks and ropes, but they also used their feet and hands, and<\/p>\n

    their well trained eyes, as rough equivalents.<\/p>\n

    As commerce became more sophisticated the precision of standard measures and<\/p>\n

    weights grew. The straight Neolithic track ways, sometimes called \u2018ley lines\u2019 and \u2018straight<\/p>\n

    tracks\u2019, were measured out with great precision. The sky was used as a navigational map,<\/p>\n

    but the distances trav eled were probably based on the ability of cattle to travel in \u201clegs\u201d or<\/p>\n

    leagues, between water and pasture. For centuries this knowledge remained the province<\/p>\n

    of the cattle drover or husbandman. But, as populations expanded permanent settlements<\/p>\n

    replaced the nomadic life-style and an early form of agribusiness sprang up.<\/p>\n

    At the height of their influence, around 3500 BPE., The Star Temples, and later the<\/p>\n

    cathedrals, yielded stan dard knowledge to the public in great pro fusion. Every geometric<\/p>\n

    shape, every spiral and every legend stood on public display. Day-to-day commerce was<\/p>\n

    based on measuring a horse by hands, and a close race by a nose, a practice still in force<\/p>\n

    today.<\/p>\n

    If we wonder just how much influence the Stone Age has on us today, we need only<\/p>\n

    look to \u201cThe British Stone\u201d a weight of approximately fourteen American pounds. Like-<\/p>\n

    wise, in the Oklahoma land rush, tracts of land were given to those who could ride fast<\/p>\n

    and far. The man or woman who used horses effectively got the largest and best tract of<\/p>\n

    land. In an other example, padre Junipero Serra imagined the California Mission sys tem<\/p>\n

    as a rosary, an idea he derived on his pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James Compostelle<\/p>\n

    in Spain. The California mission system was set up by the stars, but it was also a practical<\/p>\n

    system, each mission, a bead on the rosary, each bead\u2014 one days ride from the next.<\/p>\n

    Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    1 Ross, Charles. Solar Burn<\/em>, University of Utah Press. 1976. Salt Lake City, pp 1-64.<\/p>\n

    2 Marschack, Alexander. The Roots of Civilization. 1972. We know Paleolithic people <\/em><\/p>\n

    kept track of<\/em><\/p>\n

    the sun, moon and various planets because they left behind hand-held calculators which count astronomical<\/em><\/p>\n

    events against a backdrop of con stellations. These early \u2018laptop\u2019 computers, of which many examples have been<\/em><\/p>\n

    found, were commonly made of wood, but only bone and stone versions have survived.<\/em><\/p>\n

    3 The Paleolithic peoples of France, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Ireland and Britain were not far from real-<\/em><\/p>\n

    izing, in their own intuitive way, what we now refer to as \u201cchaos theory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    4 Thom, Alexander and Thom, Archibald . \u201cA New Study Of All Lunar Sight Lines,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    Archaeoastronomy JHA Supplement 2, S78-S89. 1980.<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 Thom, Alexander: Megalithic Lunar Observatories, Oxford University Press, 1971.<\/em><\/p>\n

    6 Brennan. Martin The Stars and the Stones. Thames & Hudson, 1982.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 37<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    A HISTORY IN STONE<\/p>\n

    Prehistory in Europe is traditionally divided into<\/p>\n

    four parts. These are not strict definitions, human<\/p>\n

    history is rarely abrupt, I cite them here only because<\/p>\n

    they are so commonly used and because to truly understand<\/p>\n

    the megaliths one must understand how old they are.Since<\/p>\n

    this book is partially a guide for New Age explorers the<\/p>\n

    reader should bear in mind that almost any date you see in<\/p>\n

    an academictextis wrong, especially for Ireland, because in<\/p>\n

    the 1970s variousbreakthroughs in tree ring dating forced<\/p>\n

    the scale backward, but the academics refuse to budge<\/p>\n

    from their conservative dates. Generally, it is agreed that<\/p>\n

    Newgrange was built around 3300 BPE and that both<\/p>\n

    Knowth and Dowth are older by about 500 years. In order<\/p>\n

    to understand the significance of these dates you will have<\/p>\n

    to understand the traditional historical divisions used in<\/p>\n

    archaeology.<\/p>\n

    The Old Stone Age<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The theoretical timeframe known as the Paleolithic <\/em>or \u201cStone<\/p>\n

    Age\u201d covers Western Europe from the first walking tool<\/p>\n

    users to the ascent of true Homo Sapiens <\/em>and is itself gener-<\/p>\n

    ally subdivided into three sections as follows: The Lower<\/p>\n

    Paleolithic\u2014 encompassing our ear liest ancestors, about one<\/p>\n

    million years ago. The Middle Paleolithic<\/em>\u2014 including most<\/p>\n

    of Cro-Magnon evolution \u2014 starting about forty thousand<\/p>\n

    years ago, and the Final Paleolithic <\/em>encompassing the last<\/p>\n

    glacial epoch which ended abruptly around 12,000 bpe.<\/p>\n

    The Upper Paleolithic represents the first era of modern<\/p>\n

    humans in Western Europe. Here we dis cover widespread<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 38<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    3 8<\/p>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    Above: Spiral ,<\/em><\/p>\n

    aproximately 12\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    in diameter. circa<\/em><\/p>\n

    4000 BPE. found<\/em><\/p>\n

    between Knowth and <\/em><\/p>\n

    Newgrange. This<\/em><\/p>\n

    stone tool is in a<\/em><\/p>\n

    private collection in<\/em><\/p>\n

    Kells.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Opposite: Overhead<\/em><\/p>\n

    view of the same<\/em><\/p>\n

    stone showing lands<\/em><\/p>\n

    and grooves. This<\/em><\/p>\n

    may have been a<\/em><\/p>\n

    survey instrument<\/em><\/p>\n

    similar to a<\/em><\/p>\n

    theodilite or sighting<\/em><\/p>\n

    device.<\/em><\/p>\n

    standardization of tools, art tech niques and astronomy, we<\/p>\n

    also see the first use of geometric patterns in art. Denizens<\/p>\n

    of that longwintery era looked and walked like us. We have<\/p>\n

    been brain washed about their savage appearance. Some<\/p>\n

    were tall, some short. Some were red headed, some dark.<\/p>\n

    Bones of every description have been found, but some have<\/p>\n

    been badly cataloged while other data is jealously guarded.<\/p>\n

    Even so, a factual picture is emerging. The human beings<\/p>\n

    we once thought of as ugly, m o n k e y – l i k e a n d primi-<\/p>\n

    tive, would not, if properly clad, be out of place in a New<\/p>\n

    York sub way. In other words, they are us.<\/p>\n

    The populations of Europe at the end of the Final<\/p>\n

    Paleolithic, although sparse, were robust and interactive.<\/p>\n

    Advanced tools and increas ingly elaborate cave art<\/p>\n

    identify their habita tion sites. Counting tools with definite<\/p>\n

    astronomic features were employed as calculators to predict<\/p>\n

    salmon and red deer migrations. Although the great cave<\/p>\n

    paintings at Lascaux are from this era, smaller geo metric<\/p>\n

    symbols and celestial decorations, like zigzags, spi rals, dots<\/p>\n

    and ring marks were found on everyday objects. 1<\/p>\n

    The Middle Stone Age<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Next, in school book order, comes a complex pre historic<\/p>\n

    layer called the Mesolithic or \u201c Middle Stone Age\u201d created<\/p>\n

    by the final with drawal of the glaciers. This took place in<\/p>\n

    different ways at different locales, but generally we can place<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 39<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    3 9<\/p>\n

    A History in Stone<\/em><\/p>\n

    a fully developed Mesolithic culture in Ireland around 6000 BPE. or at least 8000 years<\/p>\n

    ago. Like their cave dwelling ancestors, the Mesolithic people lived a hunter-gatherer<\/p>\n

    life-style radiating out from river side encampments rather than caves. 2<\/p>\n

    Some tribes in Western Europe may have evolved quickly from the cave to agricul ture,<\/p>\n

    without a well-defined transition pe riod, while others may have remained hunter-gatherers<\/p>\n

    into the Roman occupation of Western Europe. Around Greenland and North America<\/p>\n

    Mesolithic people moved with the now extinct Great Auk. They also tracked Orca, geese<\/p>\n

    and other migratory animals. These highly adapted people usually lived on raised beaches<\/p>\n

    between a fresh water river and a sheltered cove. Their cousins in Europe did the same,<\/p>\n

    using a toggle harpoon for fish and a drop line to sound the bottom. They also erected<\/p>\n

    standing stones for place markers and developed a stone lentil arch as a door support.<\/p>\n

    The oldest \u2018Red Paint\u2019 site in Labrador dates back 7500 years. In Bohusl\u00e4n, Sweden a<\/p>\n

    date of 5300 BPE. is well established and a similar date has been derived by analyzing<\/p>\n

    charcoal from a stone hearth in Sligo, Ireland, the Neolithic birthplace of the Irish court<\/p>\n

    cairn builders. 3<\/p>\n

    Although it is not established that the Red Paint people of Labrador are related to<\/p>\n

    the Megalith builders of Ireland, Sweden, Brittany and Holland, it is well established that<\/p>\n

    both groups used similar navigation methods and astronomy and may have shared trade<\/p>\n

    routes. This would naturally create a very slow genetic and technological diffusion even<\/p>\n

    though the groups were probably isolates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 40<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    4 0<\/p>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    Above: Lunar<\/em><\/p>\n

    calculators on bone<\/em><\/p>\n

    baton from Spain.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Middle Neolithic.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Opposite: Carved stone<\/em><\/p>\n

    neck ornaments, known<\/em><\/p>\n

    as \u201cschist plaques,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    shown approximately<\/em><\/p>\n

    actual size. The designs<\/em><\/p>\n

    on these objects correlate<\/em><\/p>\n

    with the designs carved<\/em><\/p>\n

    on the stones in Ireland.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The wedge and zigzag<\/em><\/p>\n

    pattern are associated<\/em><\/p>\n

    with the Goddess cult<\/em><\/p>\n

    and may be linked to the<\/em><\/p>\n

    constellation Cassiopeia.<\/em><\/p>\n

    In many cases the tools, especially chisels<\/p>\n

    and net weights are identical on both sides of<\/p>\n

    the Atlantic. Methods of burial and symbolic<\/p>\n

    carvings are also similar. Stone line inhumation<\/p>\n

    cysts coated with red ochre pigment are recorded<\/p>\n

    around the North Atlantic. Zigzag patterns found<\/p>\n

    on Red Paint ceremonial bones compare favorably<\/p>\n

    with the chevrons found on stones in Brittany and<\/p>\n

    Ireland. 4<\/p>\n

    By 5000 bpe., on the island of Jura, conical<\/p>\n

    round huts evolved into wood and stone houses.<\/p>\n

    These were covered with skins and thatch. Around<\/p>\n

    the same time in Portugal and in Sligo, kitchens were<\/p>\n

    built from stone slabs incorporated into the walls of<\/p>\n

    similar round houses. Most importantly many carved<\/p>\n

    Megaliths began to appear in isolated alignments.<\/p>\n

    Each Atlantic maritime village possessed its own<\/p>\n

    cairn or stone ring that acted as a sun and moon<\/p>\n

    dial and as a node within a complex com munications<\/p>\n

    network.<\/p>\n

    The New Stone Age<\/strong><\/p>\n

    (Neolithic)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    We see an even wider degree of settlement all over the<\/p>\n

    Atlantic rim, one thousand years after the settlements of<\/p>\n

    Jura, Bohusl\u00e4n and Sligo. This wider settlement phase marks<\/p>\n

    the beginning of the Neolithic Era or New Stone Age. The<\/p>\n

    sheer majesty of monuments such as Newgrange in Ireland\u2019s<\/p>\n

    Boyne Valley and Gavrinis, on an island in Brittany, hints<\/p>\n

    that the Neolithic builders were caught-up in a culture-wide<\/p>\n

    quest for enlightenment through ceremonial architec ture,<\/p>\n

    and that this quest, once achieved, led to a further quest<\/p>\n

    for self knowledge and indi vidual enlight enment.<\/p>\n

    The temple builders developed a spec tacular architectural<\/p>\n

    model that allowed rit ual astron omy to enter the life of every<\/p>\n

    citizen, every day. Obviously the Neolithic architects were<\/p>\n

    attempting to design a temple precinct that would join the<\/p>\n

    shamanic ancestral past with the more scientific developments<\/p>\n

    of their own era. They believed that a monument like<\/p>\n

    Newgrange would merge the music and legends of the sea<\/p>\n

    and hunt with the rhythms of the field and pasture. In short<\/p>\n

    they were encasing the Atlantic Paleolithic creation myth,<\/p>\n

    expressed as geometry and number, in permanent stone.<\/p>\n

    This genesis can also be detected in the posi tioning of<\/p>\n

    the stones and in the progress of architec tural themes. In<\/p>\n

    the passage temples we see the reconstruction of the cave<\/p>\n

    environment, but we also see a catalog of abstract art that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 41<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    4 1<\/p>\n

    A History in Stone<\/em><\/p>\n

    many experts feel reflect the oral traditions of the Paleolithic<\/p>\n

    shaman translated for Neolithic audiences.<\/p>\n

    If we probe further we may see that Neolithic life was<\/p>\n

    easy compared to the rigors of the Ice Age. By the time<\/p>\n

    Newgrange was finished the purely geo metric icon sup-<\/p>\n

    plants the animistic totem. Domestic animals, including<\/p>\n

    oxen, the horse, goats, ducks and sheep are kept close by<\/p>\n

    in pens, while live fish, mollusks, limpets and other sea<\/p>\n

    creatures are dried, as in jerky, or kept in nearby traps and<\/p>\n

    ponds. Precise knowledge of the cycles of both domestic<\/p>\n

    and wild animals is required.<\/p>\n

    Once the legends of the hunt and the measurements<\/p>\n

    of nature are cast in stone, the tribe gains the ability to<\/p>\n

    antici pate cyclic events identically over many generations.<\/p>\n

    Anxiety is reduced because every one in the culture can see<\/p>\n

    into the future with a degree of accuracy only dreamt of by<\/p>\n

    the ancestors. Still, the hunting rituals are commemo rated<\/p>\n

    in legend. The sky bear becomes a real king. The night<\/p>\n

    Goddess becomes the queen of many cows. The star sagas<\/p>\n

    and heroic treks of the ancestors continue in oral tradition<\/p>\n

    and are memorized by association with the stars and the<\/p>\n

    stones. The old legends merge with the many nations. The<\/p>\n

    science of num ber and the pre dictability of events takes<\/p>\n

    precedence over sympathetic magic, but the shaman and<\/p>\n

    sibyl are still necessary as healers and medicine makers,<\/p>\n

    midwives, musicians and storytellers.<\/p>\n

    Above and Below: Schist<\/em><\/p>\n

    plaques from Portugal reflect<\/em><\/p>\n

    the identical symbols found at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Newgrange in Ireland and at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Locmariaquer, in Bretagne. All<\/em><\/p>\n

    of the plaques collected have<\/em><\/p>\n

    astronomical significane. The<\/em><\/p>\n

    horizon line is shown clearly in<\/em><\/p>\n

    the example above. The entire<\/em><\/p>\n

    shape and decor of the plaque<\/em><\/p>\n

    below indicates solar and lunar<\/em><\/p>\n

    activity,<\/em><\/p>\n

    Above: This curved plaque relates how<\/em><\/p>\n

    light, when touched by the diety, can<\/em><\/p>\n

    be bent around corners as it occurs at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Gavrinis in Brittany, at Maes Howe<\/em><\/p>\n

    in Scotland, and at any of the beam<\/em><\/p>\n

    dial monuments scattered all over the<\/em><\/p>\n

    ancient megalithic world. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 42<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    4 2<\/p>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    Could This Be A Primordial God?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    There is no such thing as a thunder bolt. Thunder is invisible. But lightning<\/em><\/p>\n

    and thunder almost always occur in sequence. Zeus is often depicted with a<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u201cthunder bolt.\u201d Bolg was described as the \u201cLightning Maker.\u201d Since lightning<\/em><\/p>\n

    itself makes no noise we can see that Zeus was probably originally a lightning<\/em><\/p>\n

    bolt god almost identical to Bolg even though 2000 years separate their<\/em><\/p>\n

    devotions. These magical dynamics represents the invisible world made<\/em><\/p>\n

    manifest.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The invisible nature of light, lightning, and the obvious pagan correlation<\/em><\/p>\n

    with lightning and thunder as power sources, makes it possible to assume that<\/em><\/p>\n

    the mound builders saw the light beam (which they had created by building<\/em><\/p>\n

    the mound) as a personal manifestation of the heroic light god Bolg, the Irish<\/em><\/p>\n

    Zeus, and that those privileged to witness the beam were observing the actual<\/em><\/p>\n

    and symbolic impregnation of the earth mother by the forces of the cosmos.<\/em><\/p>\n

    At Newgrange this impregnation process comes to an apotheosis when the<\/em><\/p>\n

    light beam strikes and traces the triple spiral in the North interior chamber.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Until now, no one has made this association clear, but the hammer stones and<\/em><\/p>\n

    lightning bolt symbols found at Knowth and in Scotland, coupled with the<\/em><\/p>\n

    triple spiral and zigzag marks etched into stones in prominent places, seem to<\/em><\/p>\n

    support this view..<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 43<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    4 3<\/p>\n

    A History in Stone<\/em><\/p>\n

    Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    1 Marschack, Alexander. Exploring the Mind of Ice-Age Man<\/em>, 1975.<\/p>\n

    2 Woodman, P.C. Scientific American<\/em>. 1981<\/p>\n

    3 Fitzhugh, William. Residence Pattern Development in the Labrador Maritime Archaic<\/em>. In: Archeology of<\/em><\/p>\n

    Newfoundland and Labrador. <\/em>1983. p. 6-47.<\/p>\n

    4 Herity, M. Irish Passage Graves. <\/em>Dublin. 1974. p. 124.<\/p>\n

    Neolithic archer<\/em><\/p>\n

    stalking elk on the<\/em><\/p>\n

    plains of Mel, Meath.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Note \u2018X\u2019 pattern on<\/em><\/p>\n

    bow.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Chalcolithic & Bronze Age<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The cultural transition between stone and metal was not simple. Instead it took the<\/p>\n

    form of a profound evolutionary wave. The age of metal begins in Western Europe<\/p>\n

    around 5200 years ago, approximtely the time Newgrange was completed. Metal<\/p>\n

    implements, and the knowldge of how to make them, arriving with migrants from<\/p>\n

    Eastern Europe and across the Alps, began to replace stone tools, first with copper,<\/p>\n

    then with bronze, and it was at this juncture that the old glacial and maritime cultures,<\/p>\n

    rather than dying off, somehow managed to integrate with the new agriculturalists.<\/p>\n

    Through this proximity, the larger, westward drifting populations, eventually learned<\/p>\n

    to respect the legends of the stars, animal totems and related astronomy traceable to<\/p>\n

    the Ice Age. Thus, some aspects of the old tribal structure and clan dynamics lived on<\/p>\n

    in pocket cultures, until they were thoroughly intermingled. This process, which took<\/p>\n

    at least 2000 years, formed, what we now refer to as the Celtic Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 44<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    MAGIc & ARcHITEcTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Since the artifact formation of Western Europe\u2019s<\/p>\n

    aboriginal civilization is so poorly understood, and<\/p>\n

    since the progress of technology in the last stages<\/p>\n

    of the Ice Age directly influences the megalithic culture<\/p>\n

    of Ireland, it is important to repeat the progress of events<\/p>\n

    whenever possible.<\/p>\n

    Originally the cave was the essential homing point for civil<\/p>\n

    life. Temporary huts were built on hunting forays, but the<\/p>\n

    cave was the home of the earth mother and the bear god.<\/p>\n

    Some caves were so sacred they were treated as cathedrals,<\/p>\n

    special places for worship and destinations for pilgrimages.<\/p>\n

    As the ice sheets melted, about 15,000 years ago, vast fertile<\/p>\n

    fields, fruit trees, and softwood forests sprang up inviting<\/p>\n

    the clans to journey further from the caves and explore the<\/p>\n

    greening plains and fertile coastlines.<\/p>\n

    Around 12,000 years ago the clans of the protomesolithic<\/p>\n

    began to perfect their animal husbandry skills. The wolf, now<\/p>\n

    domesticated as a family dog, traveled with the migratory<\/p>\n

    humans. With the dog for protection and companionship<\/p>\n

    and the cat for vermin control our ancestors were so suc-<\/p>\n

    cessful at breeding and providing food that a population<\/p>\n

    explosion took place. Next the horse and the Oxen were<\/p>\n

    domesticated. Hundreds of archaeological digs show a<\/p>\n

    consistant migratory and domstication pattern. The band or<\/p>\n

    family group moving to a fertile area, would use slash and<\/p>\n

    burn agriculture until the land was depleted. They would<\/p>\n

    then revert to hunting and fishing as they moved on. They<\/p>\n

    learned that domestic animals would stay home if grain and<\/p>\n

    feed were provided so they began to plant barley and other<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 45<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    4 4<\/p>\n

    grains in cycles. They also began to use the same territory<\/p>\n

    over again as the rested their fields and rotated their crops.<\/p>\n

    The most common pattern was to let the animals graze the<\/p>\n

    depleted land to fertilize it while hawthorn and other vines<\/p>\n

    took over. Then, as needed the land would be reclaimed and<\/p>\n

    barley, emmer and other cereal grains would be planted.<\/p>\n

    This system provided beer, bread, honey and an unending<\/p>\n

    supply of mush. This diet was supplanted with wild berries,<\/p>\n

    hazelnuts, gull eggs, fish and deer meat usually preserved<\/p>\n

    as jerky. As they cleared the forests they built family linked<\/p>\n

    farmsteads. They also began experimenting with permanent<\/p>\n

    stone dwellings and with lightbeams and sundials built into<\/p>\n

    mounds known as cairns.<\/p>\n

    Dolmen<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Dolmen, translated as \u201ctable stones\u201d French: quoit, <\/em>Welsh:<\/p>\n

    cromlech<\/em>, are usually fond as simple stone arches composed<\/p>\n

    of three or four Megaliths capped with a massive boulder<\/p>\n

    or flat rock. The capstone feature appears in Maine, along<\/p>\n

    Penobscot Bay, and again at Stonehenge and in the corbelled<\/p>\n

    ceilings of the Star Temples of Brittany and Ireland. Some<\/p>\n

    seem to be more elaborate and labor intensive than others,<\/p>\n

    designed with as many as twenty-four upright stones called<\/p>\n

    orthostats, obvi ously leading the way to, or borrowing from<\/p>\n

    the cairn idea. Others used as few as two orthostats, the<\/p>\n

    Below Left:<\/em><\/p>\n

    Poul na Brone Dol-<\/em><\/p>\n

    men on the Burrin,<\/em><\/p>\n

    County Galway. The<\/em><\/p>\n

    dolmen, little more<\/em><\/p>\n

    than arch structures,<\/em><\/p>\n

    probably arrived early<\/em><\/p>\n

    in the Neolithic build-<\/em><\/p>\n

    ing sequence because<\/em><\/p>\n

    they are usually un-<\/em><\/p>\n

    carved and are often<\/em><\/p>\n

    seen standing alone<\/em><\/p>\n

    in remote areas, as if<\/em><\/p>\n

    they were waymarkers.<\/em><\/p>\n

    There may have been<\/em><\/p>\n

    some burial function,<\/em><\/p>\n

    but generally they func-<\/em><\/p>\n

    tion as shelters and<\/em><\/p>\n

    navigational sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

    In Labrador similar<\/em><\/p>\n

    small orthostats and<\/em><\/p>\n

    arches, dated to 7000<\/em><\/p>\n

    B.C.E., have turned up<\/em><\/p>\n

    in the context of the<\/em><\/p>\n

    Red Paint people, who<\/em><\/p>\n

    may have sailed back<\/em><\/p>\n

    and forth to Europe<\/em><\/p>\n

    following totem ani-<\/em><\/p>\n

    mals. In other words,<\/em><\/p>\n

    although the mounds<\/em><\/p>\n

    and dolmen seem to<\/em><\/p>\n

    date in the Neolithic<\/em><\/p>\n

    era, the astronomy and<\/em><\/p>\n

    technology necessary<\/em><\/p>\n

    to build them seems to<\/em><\/p>\n

    have accumulated from<\/em><\/p>\n

    the Middle Paleolithic. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 46<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    4 5<\/p>\n

    Magic & Architecture<\/em><\/p>\n

    Above: Gavr Innis a small islet On the south coast of Brittany, features a mound with<\/em><\/p>\n

    fabulously carved stones in a tunnel leading to an inner chamber. This mound allows<\/em><\/p>\n

    a light beam to enter on Winter Solstice. For this and other reasons, Gavr Innis is<\/em><\/p>\n

    possibly one prototyype for the carved mounds in Ireland. The massive carved stones<\/em><\/p>\n

    that line the passage and inner chamber, pictured above, show marked similarities to<\/em><\/p>\n

    the technology at Newgrange, Dowth and Knowth in the Boyne Valley. This 6000 year<\/em><\/p>\n

    old dial system, located within rowing distance to the shores of the Gulf of Morbihan,<\/em><\/p>\n

    clocks the Midwinter Sunrise and a number of other celestial events. It is also one<\/em><\/p>\n

    of the most interesting and richly carved sites in the world and was probably an<\/em><\/p>\n

    initiation center dedicated to tides and the moon. Although the carvings here seem<\/em><\/p>\n

    similar to those in the Boyne Valley there are distinct differences and eccentricities.<\/em><\/p>\n

    This particular place seems to be able to track dozens of different beams created by<\/em><\/p>\n

    bending light around a corner rather than sending it through a slit aperture. The stone<\/em><\/p>\n

    at center left seems to have candles in the middle. The two dark spots are actually<\/em><\/p>\n

    smooth recesses suitable to hold tallow. A similar candle was kept lit for eight hours.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Whereas Newgrange was designed to allow light on very limited days of the year, this<\/em><\/p>\n

    site seems to have been designed to capture some form of light all year round. The Gavr<\/em><\/p>\n

    Innis chamber may have also been used as a school for teaching navigation and tidal<\/em><\/p>\n

    flux to mariners.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 47<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    4 6<\/p>\n

    Above: A Court<\/em><\/p>\n

    Cairn in Tipperary<\/em><\/p>\n

    overlooking a lake.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Poles were used to hang<\/em><\/p>\n

    meat, dry clothing<\/em><\/p>\n

    and maintain shadow<\/em><\/p>\n

    directions. In Winter a<\/em><\/p>\n

    roof of skins was used<\/em><\/p>\n

    to seal the structure.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The cairns in Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    are among the oldest<\/em><\/p>\n

    stone buildings in the<\/em><\/p>\n

    world. Some writers<\/em><\/p>\n

    think they originated<\/em><\/p>\n

    with Amerindian<\/em><\/p>\n

    migrants since similar<\/em><\/p>\n

    mounds, dating from<\/em><\/p>\n

    the fifth millennium,<\/em><\/p>\n

    have been located in<\/em><\/p>\n

    Newfoundland and in<\/em><\/p>\n

    Maine. BUt more recent<\/em><\/p>\n

    research indcates that<\/em><\/p>\n

    these stgructgures have<\/em><\/p>\n

    been used around the<\/em><\/p>\n

    Atlantic rim, especially<\/em><\/p>\n

    in Brittany inthe Gulf of<\/em><\/p>\n

    Morbihan since the end<\/em><\/p>\n

    of the Ice Age.<\/em><\/p>\n

    whole leaning against a hillside for support. Structures using<\/p>\n

    only three sup port uprights are sometimes called trilithons<\/p>\n

    or tripod structures.<\/p>\n

    Dolmen are common in Ireland, you may see one in a<\/p>\n

    field as you drive down the main highway. They seem to<\/p>\n

    mark the fuzzy line between the Mesolithic wanderers (the<\/p>\n

    dawn people) and the Neolithic set tlement folk (the passage<\/p>\n

    temple builders), but similar structures were built in the<\/p>\n

    Bronze Age so it appears the idea was common for a very<\/p>\n

    long period. They may be associated with death rituals and<\/p>\n

    were probably used as exposure platforms in the excarna-<\/p>\n

    tion process, but they are also astronomy platforms as it<\/p>\n

    was probably believed the human soul could only achieve<\/p>\n

    oneness by returning to nature on a specific alignment at<\/p>\n

    a specific time. 1<\/p>\n

    Dolmen are common in Brittany, Ireland, Wales and<\/p>\n

    Scotland and often mark trade routes. They seem to be<\/p>\n

    more significant along specific straight tracks and roads<\/p>\n

    that connect habitation sites to track ways.<\/p>\n

    Very little work has been done on the astronomy of<\/p>\n

    dolmen even though these mysterious structures are often<\/p>\n

    part of larger precincts dedicated to as tronomical observa-<\/p>\n

    tions and seafaring navigation. The observer could sit inside<\/p>\n

    and meditate or simply observe the pas sage of a planet or<\/p>\n

    the sun or moon. Fires could have been set alight within a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 48<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    4 7<\/p>\n

    Magic & Architecture<\/em><\/p>\n

    Below: A<\/em><\/p>\n

    reconstruction of<\/em><\/p>\n

    a Court Cairn in<\/em><\/p>\n

    West Cork.<\/em><\/p>\n

    dolmen to create a lighthouse effect when viewed from the<\/p>\n

    sea.<\/p>\n

    Some Bronze Age mounds incorporate tripod struc tures,<\/p>\n

    a few are associated with pit and beaker burials leading one<\/p>\n

    to think that a dolmen may be the inner structure of a burial<\/p>\n

    mound that has been eroded or raided by ancient treasure<\/p>\n

    hunters, but many early dolmen were sacred centers, with no<\/p>\n

    surrounding mound and no grave whatsoever. One expert<\/p>\n

    speculates that they were road side rest stops for weary cattle<\/p>\n

    drovers. Most dolmen are located within a short walk of a<\/p>\n

    fresh water source and are often associated with wells..<\/p>\n

    Cairns<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The cave inside the cairn became a memory chamber for the<\/p>\n

    legends, and science of the old ones, the ancestors. The con-<\/p>\n

    struction of these permanent stone buildings roughly marks<\/p>\n

    a new period in human development that archaeologists call<\/p>\n

    the Neolithic or New Stone Age. An aerial photograph of<\/p>\n

    the Neolithic settlement on the plateau of Carrowkeel in<\/p>\n

    Ireland, reveals a classic scene. Here a fabulous round cairn,<\/p>\n

    with a perfect passage and court yard, is seen flanked on<\/p>\n

    all sides by huts and corrals, kitchens and apartments. Use<\/p>\n

    of the cairn in everyday life allowed the clan longhouse to<\/p>\n

    grow into a true village, perhaps even a village with unre-<\/p>\n

    lated citizens. In any case the pile of stones in the middle<\/p>\n

    or on the outskirts of the enclave was the religious center,<\/p>\n

    an assembly point, a place of worship and a place of civic<\/p>\n

    focus. This may someday be explained by the possibility<\/p>\n

    that a cultural merger between Amerindian peo ples and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 49<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    4 8<\/p>\n

    Below: Unrecorded<\/em><\/p>\n

    carved megalith near<\/em><\/p>\n

    Kells, called the Cross<\/em><\/p>\n

    Keys stone by local<\/em><\/p>\n

    farmers. This stone<\/em><\/p>\n

    aligns with the great<\/em><\/p>\n

    Cross in the cemetary at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Kells, often referred to<\/em><\/p>\n

    on maps as Cennounos<\/em><\/p>\n

    Mor. This is a classic<\/em><\/p>\n

    example of a map<\/em><\/p>\n

    stone which shows both<\/em><\/p>\n

    astral and eartthly<\/em><\/p>\n

    orientations. Some of<\/em><\/p>\n

    the markings represent<\/em><\/p>\n

    energy lines in the fields<\/em><\/p>\n

    around the area.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Harrison<\/em><\/p>\n

    European Aboriginal peo ples took place shortly after the<\/p>\n

    end of the last Ice Age.<\/p>\n

    Cairns, especially court cairns, are the first cyclopean stone<\/p>\n

    temples constructed anywhere and are excellent in dications<\/p>\n

    of an early date for settled reli gious practices in the Atlantic<\/p>\n

    interactive sphere. Early cairns date to about 5500 b.c. in<\/p>\n

    Portugal at Evora, Irish dates are roughly similar while<\/p>\n

    Labrador cairns may be slightly older. 2<\/p>\n

    Many cairns contained basin stones or ritual ceramic<\/p>\n

    bowls and many show a distinct trilithon door frame feature,<\/p>\n

    either as a ritual structure, in the interior of the mound,<\/p>\n

    as in Labrador, or as an actual architectural member to<\/p>\n

    give height and strength to a chamber.<\/p>\n

    Cairn chambers are often cross-shaped, (cruciform) and<\/p>\n

    most of them incorporate beam-dialing. The main Carrow-<\/p>\n

    keel site in Sligo is built in the shape of the \u201cGoddess\u201d as<\/p>\n

    are the temples at Tarxien on Malta. The difference being<\/p>\n

    that the Carrowkeel cairn is at least one thousand years<\/p>\n

    older than the Maltese temple. It appears that a creation<\/p>\n

    myth based on natural science lies behind the construction<\/p>\n

    of these structures \u2014 a theory of how the universe began<\/p>\n

    expressed in architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 50<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    4 9<\/p>\n

    Magic & Architecture<\/em><\/p>\n

    Carved Megaliths<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Many of the cairns in Ireland show evidence of symbolic<\/p>\n

    carvings. These marks are based on astronomy, but the<\/p>\n

    markings are also a Hypertext or meta-language that,<\/p>\n

    when fully understood, may prove to be the oldest written<\/p>\n

    language ever discovered.<\/p>\n

    Deeply etched and elaborately carved stones, carrying<\/p>\n

    obvious symbolism, begin at the first phase of the Neolithic,<\/p>\n

    at the exact point where the cairn grew into a larger more<\/p>\n

    com plex temple. The best examples of Irish cairn art, in<\/p>\n

    this transitional phase, can be found at Loughcrew on a<\/p>\n

    small mountain top near Oldcastle, County Meath, about<\/p>\n

    fifty miles Northwest of Dublin and in direct line with the<\/p>\n

    Boyne Valley monuments. Large fires lit at Tara and Dowth<\/p>\n

    could easily be seen forty miles away on a clear night.<\/p>\n

    The Loughcrew hilltop\u2014 (Slieve na Caillighe) <\/em>in Irish; literally<\/p>\n

    translated to \u2018 Witch Mountain\u2019\u2014 is an observatory stand-<\/p>\n

    ing on average about eight hundred feet above sea level.<\/p>\n

    On a clear day most of Ireland can be observed from this<\/p>\n

    spot. The Loughcrew carvings are similar in style to those<\/p>\n

    found in Portugal and France, in Britain and Southern<\/p>\n

    Ireland and many experts feel there is a d i r e c t c u l t u r a l<\/p>\n

    connection.<\/p>\n

    Loughcrew is dotted with dozens of very old cairns<\/p>\n

    and stand ing stones. Modern astronomers have<\/p>\n

    described it as an astronomy center with many telescopes<\/p>\n

    located to catch the apparent rise and set of the sun and the<\/p>\n

    activities of the moon and Venus. One recumbent alter called<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe Hags Chair,\u201d weighing in at over five tons is a true<\/p>\n

    marvel. It is not only carved with spirals, but a decorative<\/p>\n

    Above: A stone lentil<\/em><\/p>\n

    at Fourknocks, County<\/em><\/p>\n

    Dublin. This stone was<\/em><\/p>\n

    probably moved to the<\/em><\/p>\n

    small mound on the<\/em><\/p>\n

    hillside at Fourknocks<\/em><\/p>\n

    from the Boyne Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The entrance overlooks<\/em><\/p>\n

    the valley toward the<\/em><\/p>\n

    Boyne. Martin Brennan<\/em><\/p>\n

    speculates it may have<\/em><\/p>\n

    been a burial location<\/em><\/p>\n

    for the chief architects<\/em><\/p>\n

    who built Newgrange,<\/em><\/p>\n

    a way of telling future<\/em><\/p>\n

    generations how long it<\/em><\/p>\n

    took to build the final<\/em><\/p>\n

    mound. The carving<\/em><\/p>\n

    and stone composition<\/em><\/p>\n

    is almost identical to<\/em><\/p>\n

    that of Newgrange.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The chevron or zigzag<\/em><\/p>\n

    pattern indicates diurnal<\/em><\/p>\n

    rhythms. There are four<\/em><\/p>\n

    niches within Fourknocks.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Brennan\u2019s unpublished<\/em><\/p>\n

    theory may have some<\/em><\/p>\n

    credence since it probably<\/em><\/p>\n

    took four generations to<\/em><\/p>\n

    build Newgrange. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 51<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 0<\/p>\n

    edge has been sanded all around. To this day debate rages<\/p>\n

    as to what the stone represents, but clearly it is part of a<\/p>\n

    courtyard with the cairn in the background.<\/p>\n

    The climb up and the picnics and tours to each of the<\/p>\n

    twenty or so sighting points will take at least a day, but the<\/p>\n

    most amazing observations take place at night. If the observ-<\/p>\n

    ers body is positioned into one of the many sighting cairns<\/p>\n

    the totality of the void, the black of space and the twinkle<\/p>\n

    of the planets as they wan der by their marker stones, can<\/p>\n

    be exhilarating. To see the night sky as the ancients saw it<\/p>\n

    can be the experience of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

    At Loughcrew the clear night skies allow an unbeliev-<\/p>\n

    able view of the moon in its phases. The constellations and<\/p>\n

    planets are also easy to spot. On a new moon night one<\/p>\n

    gets the feeling the stars are close enough to touch. On a<\/p>\n

    clear Spring morning the visitor is treated to a view of the<\/p>\n

    Atlantic to the West and the Irish Sea to the East, simply<\/p>\n

    by turning around. In October, bonfires can be seen blazing<\/p>\n

    across the countryside and at Winter Solstice, the sunbeam<\/p>\n

    Left: Equinox<\/em><\/p>\n

    stone. Cairn T at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Loughcrew.<\/em><\/p>\n

    This beautiful stone<\/em><\/p>\n

    was vandalized by<\/em><\/p>\n

    the rough handling<\/em><\/p>\n

    of the first surveyors.<\/em><\/p>\n

    During the famine<\/em><\/p>\n

    migrations to<\/em><\/p>\n

    America local<\/em><\/p>\n

    residents took small<\/em><\/p>\n

    pieces with them as<\/em><\/p>\n

    good luck charms. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 52<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    5 1<\/p>\n

    Magic & Architecture<\/em><\/p>\n

    Above: Drumbeg<\/em><\/p>\n

    Circle in West<\/em><\/p>\n

    County Cork.<\/em><\/p>\n

    This photograph<\/em><\/p>\n

    was taken at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Winter solstice<\/em><\/p>\n

    using solar filter<\/em><\/p>\n

    to emphasize light<\/em><\/p>\n

    and shadows.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Although none<\/em><\/p>\n

    of the stones at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Drombeg are<\/em><\/p>\n

    carved, this<\/em><\/p>\n

    ancient circle<\/em><\/p>\n

    continues to<\/em><\/p>\n

    calculate Solstice<\/em><\/p>\n

    and Equinox<\/em><\/p>\n

    alignments<\/em><\/p>\n

    throughout the<\/em><\/p>\n

    year.<\/em><\/p>\n

    enters a number of cairns. At this height, a signal system<\/p>\n

    could have been set up to convey messages across Ireland<\/p>\n

    and to fishing craft at sea. No false horizons were necessary<\/p>\n

    on the Witches Mountain as they are at Newgrange in the<\/p>\n

    valley below.<\/p>\n

    Cairn T, the major attraction at Loughcrew, was once<\/p>\n

    thought to be the tomb of the legendary bard, Ollamh Fodla.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Although the bardic habitation of the place is from the Iron<\/p>\n

    Age, if not entirely mythical, it remains a site of enormous<\/p>\n

    importance to astronomy and archaeology. It is also a place<\/p>\n

    of breathtak ing beauty.<\/p>\n

    Star Temples<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The passage temple, or passage mound also known by the<\/p>\n

    outdated phrase \u2018passage tomb,\u2019 is the third and final devel-<\/p>\n

    opment in pre-bronze Atlantic architecture and is, without<\/p>\n

    doubt, the most controversial. I have developed the phrase<\/p>\n

    Star Temples t descibe them more fully.<\/p>\n

    Passage temples are really just extensions of the cairn<\/p>\n

    technology, but clearly the builders were experimenting with<\/p>\n

    lightbeams, shadow casters, internal height and long throw<\/p>\n

    distances for the beams. They obviously needed to stand up<\/p>\n

    in the chambers to conduct ceremonies so they expanded<\/p>\n

    the cairns by adding corbelling and internal buttressing. In<\/p>\n

    the final phase they learned to control drainage by building<\/p>\n

    up layers of gravel, peat and sod.<\/p>\n

    Cairns, featuring short passages and semicircular court-<\/p>\n

    yards, are usually situated to act as isolated local temples.<\/p>\n

    The larger Star Temples feature long passages and multiple<\/p>\n

    inner chambers. A few of these take sharp angles, such as<\/p>\n

    the passage in the mound on the Island of Gavrinis off the<\/p>\n

    Quiberron Peninsula in Brittany. Both forms present the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 53<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 2<\/p>\n

    modern observer with the impression that some kind of elaborate ceremony and gather-<\/p>\n

    ing took place here.<\/p>\n

    Cairns and passage temples display beam dials and shadow clocks, and both cer tainly<\/p>\n

    display elemental signs of ritual as tronomy, but the passage temple can incorporate mul-<\/p>\n

    tiple cairns\u2014 Dowth has at least two and Knowth has about six. Without question the<\/p>\n

    passage temple, and most specifically the Boyne monuments, represent the high point<\/p>\n

    in the evolution of Neolithic architecture.<\/p>\n

    Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    1 Borlase, W. The Dolmens of Ireland <\/em>(3 vol.) London 1897.<\/p>\n

    2 Fitzhugh, William \u201cAn Archaic Indian Cemetery in Newfoundland.\u201d In New World Archaeology:<\/em><\/p>\n

    Readings from Scientific American<\/em>. 1974.<\/p>\n

    Above: Knowth East Entrance showing Spring Equinox light entering in spite of<\/em><\/p>\n

    attempts on the part of the archaeologists to block the formation of a second and<\/em><\/p>\n

    third lightbeam in the Boyne Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 54<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    5 3<\/p>\n

    NEwGRANGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The large monuments in Ireland\u2019s Boyne<\/p>\n

    Valley are three of the oldest intact stone buildings<\/p>\n

    anywhere on earth, and they stand at the center of one of<\/p>\n

    the greatest controversies in archaeological history. They<\/p>\n

    are also among the oldest temples anywhere on earth,<\/p>\n

    exceeding similar structures in the Levant and Asia by<\/p>\n

    thousands of years. They are older than the Pyramids by<\/p>\n

    a millennium and they are significantly older than Stone-<\/p>\n

    henge III In fact, legend tells us that the astronomy we<\/p>\n

    find at Stonehenge was applied in Ireland first.<\/p>\n

    Here then lies a complex mystery. The simple cairns<\/p>\n

    and mounds we find scaattered all over Western Europe<\/p>\n

    are easily dismiised as human dwellings and tombs,<\/p>\n

    but the larger structures are so complex, so strange and<\/p>\n

    beautiful that many writers have been drawn to assume<\/p>\n

    they are the work of extra terrestrials. Admittedly this<\/p>\n

    technology did not originate in Ireland, but it did come<\/p>\n

    from somehwere on earth, a peaceful place inhabited by<\/p>\n

    curious human beings, the first scientists.<\/p>\n

    Today we can find large stone mounds only in the<\/p>\n

    extremes of Western Europe, in reote locations near rivers<\/p>\n

    along the Atlantic tidal basin. Carved and incised stones<\/p>\n

    surrounding huge mounds can be found in, Scotland,<\/p>\n

    Britain, Ireland, Spain and Brittany., and almost nowhere<\/p>\n

    else. Much is known of the mounds themselves, but who<\/p>\n

    were the artists and architects who built them and why<\/p>\n

    were they constructed on such a grand scale? Were they<\/p>\n

    tombs, or where they schools for celestial navigation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 55<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 4<\/p>\n

    To see the world through the eyes of an ancient stone<\/p>\n

    mason one must study an entire network of mounds be-<\/p>\n

    yond the Boyne Valley, throughout Ireland, in Portugal,<\/p>\n

    France and around the Atlantic rim, even those in the New<\/p>\n

    World. But a number of rigid precon ceptions have inhib-<\/p>\n

    ited our understand ing of these ancient struc tures.<\/p>\n

    It is now common knowledge that the sun\u2019s rays illu-<\/p>\n

    minate the inner chamber of the mound called Newgrange<\/p>\n

    on the morning of Winter Solstice, but hardly anyone has<\/p>\n

    attempted to explain \u2018why\u2019 this phenomenon occurs. Yes,<\/p>\n

    the lightbeam has spiritual symbolism, but was it also the<\/p>\n

    main feature of an early computer system programmed<\/p>\n

    to track the cosmos?<\/p>\n

    The ancient Irish mound builders willed us a rich<\/p>\n

    legacy. Many of the Irish mounds exhibit an almost<\/p>\n

    unbelievabel degree of technology, but, of necessity, any<\/p>\n

    further exploration, must focus on Newgrange because<\/p>\n

    it is the only fully excavated mound open to the public.<\/p>\n

    ARRIVING A T NEWGRANGE<\/p>\n

    As one gazes to the Northwest one can see the Hill of Slane<\/p>\n

    \u2014 famed as the place where Saint Patrick converted the<\/p>\n

    pagan kings. The fabled Saint did not have far to go. Tara<\/p>\n

    is five miles away from the Hill of Slane and the Brug na<\/p>\n

    Boinne is less than two. So from here, on this land drip-<\/p>\n

    ping with history, a spectator can see most of the places<\/p>\n

    central to Irish culture for thousands of years.<\/p>\n

    Above: Pen & Ink<\/em><\/p>\n

    sketch of The Boyne<\/em><\/p>\n

    Valley complex<\/em><\/p>\n

    showing interactive<\/em><\/p>\n

    patterns between the<\/em><\/p>\n

    three major mounds.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The archaeologists<\/em><\/p>\n

    in charge claim<\/em><\/p>\n

    the mounds are<\/em><\/p>\n

    independent of one<\/em><\/p>\n

    another and have no<\/em><\/p>\n

    interactive qualities.<\/em><\/p>\n

    In fact the entire<\/em><\/p>\n

    complex is designed<\/em><\/p>\n

    as one huge temple <\/em><\/p>\n

    complex built to<\/em><\/p>\n

    observe celestial<\/em><\/p>\n

    events over a period<\/em><\/p>\n

    exceeding 800 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 56<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 5<\/p>\n

    LIGHT A T THE END O F THE TUNNEL<\/p>\n

    Newgrange captures a sunbeam, everyone agrees on that because millions of<\/p>\n

    spectators have seen it. But how it works and what it means falls into the category<\/p>\n

    of intellectual chaos. More recently most scientists agree that the beam enters<\/p>\n

    the mound for the purpose of forming a temporal dial of some kind and as such,<\/p>\n

    the beam operates in some horologic, or calendar function. Not as popular, is the<\/p>\n

    proven fact that other sunbeams, and moon beams, exist in hundreds of mounds<\/p>\n

    and temple precincts all over Ireland and Western Europe and that in some cases<\/p>\n

    these beam dials interact with one another. Not as widely publicized, but easily<\/p>\n

    demonstrated, are the light beam dials marking the equinox sunrise and sunset<\/p>\n

    at Knowth and Dowth while several other sites as far away as West Cork (Drum-<\/p>\n

    beg) and Locmariaquer in Brittany. (Les Table Marchants) feature a formed light<\/p>\n

    beam to mark specific feast days.<\/p>\n

    Although Newgrange possesses one of the longest passage beams on<\/p>\n

    earth, many other locations, operating on the same technology, capture lunar and<\/p>\n

    solar beams of varying length and for differing purposes.<\/p>\n

    Since Newgrange represents the most popular beam it will serve to ex-<\/p>\n

    plain how and why this technology was invented more than 7000 years ago. In<\/p>\n

    addition, anyone with a pair of scissors and some glue can duplicate these beam<\/p>\n

    dials in their own backyard.<\/p>\n

    For eight days, four days on either side of the actual Winter Solstice<\/p>\n

    event, a sunray has a chance to form inside of Newgrange. This usually takes 17<\/p>\n

    minutes to complete. However the ray does not form exclusively as it enters the<\/p>\n

    roof box, it begins to form almost one (1) mile away across the river as the earth<\/p>\n

    rotates past the sun at the crest of the hill across the Boyne river. This selected<\/p>\n

    sunray begins to occlude before it crosses the river, strikes several stones and<\/p>\n

    markers on its journey to the entrance of Newgrange. Each of these way points<\/p>\n

    tend to collimate, limit or shape the light, mixing bright sun with shadows so that<\/p>\n

    the light is already selected and limited, or rather, \u201cConditioned\u201d before it strikes<\/p>\n

    the southeast face of the mound. As it grows in intensity it enters the mound, not<\/p>\n

    simply through the roof box, which is marked with eight (8) x patterns, but also<\/p>\n

    through the entrance way beneath the roof box. It then continues to collimate and<\/p>\n

    merge as the passage itself shapes the beam into a point.<\/p>\n

    This pointer is seen to move into the inner chamber of the mound where<\/p>\n

    it then touches on critical markings etched into the stones along he passage and<\/p>\n

    in the three niches around the inside of the mound. This light show goes on<\/p>\n

    for approximately seventeen (17) minutes until the beam finally enters the east<\/p>\n

    chamber, reflects into the larger basin stone, which, when full of liquid, reflects<\/p>\n

    the carvings on the stone overhead so they can be read in reverse. Finally, after<\/p>\n

    revealing the true secret of the mound, the light beam moves out of the passage<\/p>\n

    and disappears, only to return the following year. The eight (8) x marks on the<\/p>\n

    roof box, represent the eight potential days of Solstice, depending on weather,<\/p>\n

    and also the eight collimating and aperture points that form and direct the beam<\/p>\n

    as the earth orbits the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 57<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 6<\/p>\n

    Above and Inset:<\/em><\/p>\n

    Newgrange at Winter Solstice, approximately<\/em><\/p>\n

    9:15 AM. The iron bar across the roof box<\/em><\/p>\n

    casts its shadow though the upper beam. The<\/em><\/p>\n

    two beams merge alongside the undulating<\/em><\/p>\n

    walls of the passage as the floor rises.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Significant markings appear at the exact<\/em><\/p>\n

    point of the merger and a series of ribs are<\/em><\/p>\n

    carved into the stone. This suggests that<\/em><\/p>\n

    wooden planks were inserted to \u201csqueeze\u201d the<\/em><\/p>\n

    beam to maintain its intensity. The aperture<\/em><\/p>\n

    could have been round or oval or triangular<\/em><\/p>\n

    as the operators experimented with the beam<\/em><\/p>\n

    shape. Also, the aperture boards could have<\/em><\/p>\n

    been moved to correct for misalignments and<\/em><\/p>\n

    to help focus the beam. Moreover, the rib<\/em><\/p>\n

    boards could have been used to hold crystals<\/em><\/p>\n

    to create a prism effect. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 58<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 7<\/p>\n

    The River Boyne was known to the Phoenician ge-<\/p>\n

    ographer Marinus of Tyre around 200 B.C.. In Latin the<\/p>\n

    river was called Buvinda. In old Irish this would translate<\/p>\n

    to Bo\u00e4nd, the white cow goddess, wife of Bolga. A late<\/p>\n

    redaction of the Old Irish brings us to Boinne and finally<\/p>\n

    the anglicized Boyne. 1<\/p>\n

    This shining 5500 year old temple on the banks of the<\/p>\n

    Boyne, can be reached with as little effort as one would<\/p>\n

    put into an idyllic bicycle ride from the Dublin airport.<\/p>\n

    No great expedition need be mounted, but Newgrange<\/p>\n

    is not simplistic like so many other tourists attractions<\/p>\n

    in Ireland. The name itself is a mystery.<\/p>\n

    In Gaelic Grian Uaigh <\/em>means \u2018cave of the sun.\u2019 from<\/p>\n

    Uaimh<\/em>(oov and n\u2019 oov) cave. The name of Navan, a nearby<\/p>\n

    town, is derived from the same root. This became a loan<\/p>\n

    word into English and sounds like the Anglo-Norman<\/p>\n

    feudal word \u2018Grange\u2019 meaning a grain storage place or<\/p>\n

    grain farm. This term is a synonym for \u2018farm building\u2019 or<\/p>\n

    any building used to store grain to be assessed as taxes<\/p>\n

    to the baron or overseer or as tithes to a church, but in<\/p>\n

    this case the name may have been applied long before<\/p>\n

    the Norman\u2019s arrived and, like many traditions it stuck<\/p>\n

    allowing Newgrange, as a place, name to remain as a<\/p>\n

    triple historical pun in local folkloric tradi tion.<\/p>\n

    Early commentaries used the name, spelled in two<\/p>\n

    words as, \u2018New Grange,\u2019 but we do not know how far<\/p>\n

    back in antiquity this reference was intended. For other<\/p>\n

    reasons the two word name does not make sense because<\/p>\n

    the most widely used name for the precinct around the<\/p>\n

    mound was Brug na Boinne, an Irish term dating from<\/p>\n

    the seventh century, still in use today. The early monks,<\/p>\n

    who wrote about the area, failed to single out any one of<\/p>\n

    the mounds by name because they were pagan places, but<\/p>\n

    no one knew just how magnificent it was until Newgrange<\/p>\n

    was recon structed in the early 1970s. 2<\/p>\n

    In the Iron Age, and we must assume long before<\/p>\n

    \u2014 because the mounds collapsed in the Bronze Age, the<\/p>\n

    area was thought to be inhabited by spirits. This folk tradi-<\/p>\n

    tion, the basis of the Fairy Faith, was never stamped out<\/p>\n

    by Christians, early or late, and most of the stone circles<\/p>\n

    in Ireland were placed off-limits to all but the most pious<\/p>\n

    hermits.<\/p>\n

    As far as historians are con cerned the name<\/p>\n

    Newgrange, as one word, is a medieval construct. This<\/p>\n

    version is derived from the word granary because, it was<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 59<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 8<\/p>\n

    known locally that the mound was used to store grain in<\/p>\n

    one of its incarna tions, possibly under the monks at Mel-<\/p>\n

    lifont Abbey, since the medieval Latin variant is grainica<\/em><\/p>\n

    from Latin granum \u2014 grain. Fatuous expla nations like<\/em><\/p>\n

    this may not be the entire story though because Grainne<\/em><\/p>\n

    (pronounced Graan-ya) is the Irish name for the White<\/em><\/p>\n

    Goddess, the sun Goddess and the Goddess of the grain<\/em><\/p>\n

    harvest. She appears in Arthurian legend as Ygrain Queen<\/em><\/p>\n

    of Cornwall, wife of Uther Pendragon and mother of King<\/em><\/p>\n

    Arthur. So, like many place names in Ireland, the name of<\/em><\/p>\n

    the mound could be a complex Bardic pun, meaning the<\/em><\/p>\n

    cave of the White Goddess, a term designed to provide a<\/em><\/p>\n

    great deal of work for any writer or map maker foolhardy<\/em><\/p>\n

    enough to attempt its decipherment.<\/em><\/p>\n

    That grain was part of the ceremony at Newgrange can<\/em><\/p>\n

    not be in question. The soil in the fertile fields in front of<\/em><\/p>\n

    Newgrange, between the mound and the river itself, is tested<\/em><\/p>\n

    every year and remains among the best in Europe. Grain<\/em><\/p>\n

    must have played an important role in the ritual. Here<\/em><\/p>\n

    the religion of the old stones and the mysteries of Eleusis<\/em><\/p>\n

    seem almost identical. The river is crossed, the pilgrims<\/em><\/p>\n

    walk through grain fields, the Goddess disappears into<\/em><\/p>\n

    a dark cave where she is initiated in a flash of light and<\/em><\/p>\n

    returned. Since the earliest dates from Eleusis are at least<\/em><\/p>\n

    one thousand years younger than the most recent date for<\/em><\/p>\n

    the Boyne civilization it seems rational to conclude that<\/em><\/p>\n

    the Greek mysteries may have been influenced from the<\/em><\/p>\n

    extreme west.<\/em><\/p>\n

    When Newgrange was built it was the center of all<\/em><\/p>\n

    cere monial life in Ireland. Tara may have been the po-<\/em><\/p>\n

    litical center, but the bend in the Boyne was the spiritual<\/em><\/p>\n

    center. Late Bronze Age Irish royalty lived and reigned at<\/em><\/p>\n

    Tara, but they worshipped at the Boyne River monuments<\/em><\/p>\n

    at least until the Celts formed large tribes and separate<\/em><\/p>\n

    forms of government ranging from monarchy to represen-<\/em><\/p>\n

    tative democracy. This can be traced in the Brehon Laws.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Evidence of worship in the old ways is common, even in<\/em><\/p>\n

    modern Ireland.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Based on their language the Continental Celts are said<\/em><\/p>\n

    to have Indoeuropean roots, but the Gaels did not build<\/em><\/p>\n

    the star temples. In fact the mounds were well collpased<\/em><\/p>\n

    by the time the Continetal Gauls arrived in Ireland, but<\/em><\/p>\n

    a vital force, still breathing in the languages of modern<\/em><\/p>\n

    Ireland drives the legend mass \u2014 the songs, dances and<\/em><\/p>\n

    folklore of Ireland. This vitality pushes the old mounds <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Page 60<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

    5 9<\/p>\n

    Right: Caretakers<\/em><\/p>\n

    at Newgrange, Mr.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Hickey, seen in the<\/em><\/p>\n

    center, wearing a<\/em><\/p>\n

    cap, lost his arm<\/em><\/p>\n

    in an industrial<\/em><\/p>\n

    accident and was<\/em><\/p>\n

    made caretaker<\/em><\/p>\n

    shortly thereafter.<\/em><\/p>\n

    TH E FIRST FAMILY O F NEWGRANGE<\/p>\n

    These photos were taken by the archaeologist George Coffey between 1880<\/em><\/p>\n

    and 1912. The upper photo shows the entrance as it stood for many centuries.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Sometime after Mr. Hickey took over the entrance was excavated so that certain<\/em><\/p>\n

    individuals could crawl into the tumulus. At that same time a gate was added<\/em><\/p>\n

    and the entrance stone was cleaned of moss and lichen. The wooden camera<\/em><\/p>\n

    tripod to the left in the upper photo is an interesting touch. Obviously this was<\/em><\/p>\n

    the first official clearance of the Newgrange entrance and, although the roofbox<\/em><\/p>\n

    is not in view, we can assume that the lower beam was observed by Coffey in<\/em><\/p>\n

    keeping with local history. In other words, the beam was known to the public at<\/em><\/p>\n

    least sixty years before Professor O\u2019Kelly began his excavation. Legend relates<\/em><\/p>\n

    that Mr. Hickey\u2019s fee for a guided tour was a pint of rye whisky.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Left: Mrs.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Hickey and her<\/em><\/p>\n

    daughter Dixie<\/em><\/p>\n

    at the entrance<\/em><\/p>\n

    to Newgrange,<\/em><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. 1912.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      Page 61<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 0<\/p>\n

      forward as each new generation ponders their meaning,<\/em><\/p>\n

      and as long as the mounds exist we will be reminded of<\/em><\/p>\n

      the old ones and their magic. It now seems likely that the<\/em><\/p>\n

      Gaels inherited a great deal from the children of Mel and<\/em><\/p>\n

      the people of the fabled god Bolga. (Greek Zeus-Nordic Thor<\/em><\/p>\n

      viz., Thunderer-Thunder Bolt-Lightening Bolt.) Common<\/em><\/p>\n

      sense tells us the mounds were built by people who evolved<\/em><\/p>\n

      into the Celts after merging with hundreds of different<\/em><\/p>\n

      tribes. Mythogenesis from West to East indicates that this<\/em><\/p>\n

      Bolg, associated with both the sound of thunder and the<\/em><\/p>\n

      sight of lightening, carried to Dis Pater <\/em>in Gaul and was<\/p>\n

      still worshipped into Roman times, possibly mutating into<\/p>\n

      Mithras as the Roman legions adopted the various pagan<\/p>\n

      western gods. It is therefore highly possible that, with each<\/p>\n

      merger, the knowledge of the mounds disseminated freely<\/p>\n

      from family to family until late in the Christian era, but<\/p>\n

      was never completely interdicted in Ireland.<\/p>\n

      I NSIDE THE GODDESS<\/p>\n

      Ninety-seven large kerbstones form the edge of Newgrange.<\/p>\n

      Twelve of these stones are covered with some of the most<\/p>\n

      beautiful carvings ever unearthed from the ancient world<\/p>\n

      Above: Shadow casting<\/em><\/p>\n

      stone in the Great<\/em><\/p>\n

      Circle on the apron<\/em><\/p>\n

      of Newgrange. These<\/em><\/p>\n

      stones were placed in<\/em><\/p>\n

      permanent positions<\/em><\/p>\n

      more then 500 years<\/em><\/p>\n

      after the inauguration<\/em><\/p>\n

      of Newgrange, possibly<\/em><\/p>\n

      by the builders of<\/em><\/p>\n

      Woodhenge, Avebury<\/em><\/p>\n

      and Stonehenge. They<\/em><\/p>\n

      may have learned their<\/em><\/p>\n

      mound building skills<\/em><\/p>\n

      in the Boyne Valley<\/em><\/p>\n

      and translated this<\/em><\/p>\n

      technology back to<\/em><\/p>\n

      England in the form<\/em><\/p>\n

      of Silbury Hill and<\/em><\/p>\n

      Glastonbury Tor.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Note the change in<\/em><\/p>\n

      shading on the wall.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Harrison<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 62<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 1<\/p>\n

      in any era. Most of the other stones are plain, but all are<\/p>\n

      designed to fit a specific slot in the kerb sequence. This<\/p>\n

      distancing is critical and ingenious because the beam must<\/p>\n

      align perfectly on the entrance stone. To get ninety-seven<\/p>\n

      large kerbstones to fit precisely, so that at least three of<\/p>\n

      them could line up with astronomical events for 5000<\/p>\n

      years is beyond the credibility of most observers, but<\/p>\n

      that\u2019s what\u2019s so wonderful about Newgrange \u2014 it looks<\/p>\n

      like a Bauhaus structure, maybe something designed by<\/p>\n

      Buckminster Fuller, but it\u2019s as precise as a pyramid.<\/p>\n

      The entrance stone across the Southeast portal dis-<\/p>\n

      plays two swirling spiral designs indicating the possibility<\/p>\n

      that two separate beams enter here. These two spirals are<\/p>\n

      separated by a deep vertical groove indicating the exact<\/p>\n

      width and line of the original beam. A kerbstone, located<\/p>\n

      exactly opposite the entrance stone to the \u2018rear\u2019 of the<\/p>\n

      mound to the Northwest) continues the line through a<\/p>\n

      heavily carved stone. Obviously the two grooves were<\/p>\n

      meant to track something, such as a shdow, that passed<\/p>\n

      over the mound in a straight line.<\/p>\n

      Another carved stone incorporating spirals and<\/p>\n

      triangles, can be found on the Northeast flank of<\/p>\n

      Newgrange. This stone is carved with a twenty-nine day<\/p>\n

      lunar calendar which will count the lunar month without<\/p>\n

      reference to the mound itself, although there are many<\/p>\n

      reasons to think its calculations were part of the mound<\/p>\n

      ritual and observation regimen.<\/p>\n

      The twelve large rough hewn stones on the perimeter<\/p>\n

      Above: The sundial<\/em><\/p>\n

      stone at the east<\/em><\/p>\n

      entrance to Knowth. The<\/em><\/p>\n

      cup mark at the center<\/em><\/p>\n

      is a socket for a wood or<\/em><\/p>\n

      bone gnomon or shadow<\/em><\/p>\n

      casting stick. This stone<\/em><\/p>\n

      is related to the east<\/em><\/p>\n

      passage sunbeam which<\/em><\/p>\n

      measures the Spring<\/em><\/p>\n

      Equinox and acts in<\/em><\/p>\n

      parallel to the beam at<\/em><\/p>\n

      Newgrange. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 63<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 64<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 3<\/p>\n

      of Newgrange are known as the Great Circle. These are dated from the late Neolithic,<\/p>\n

      almost the Bronze Age circa 2500 b.p.e. and are much younger than the mound itself<\/p>\n

      by at least 500 years. So, a rough gap of at least 1000 years exists between the con-<\/p>\n

      struction of Newgrange and the final placement of these great stones. Furthermore<\/p>\n

      the Great Stone circle is based on an entirely different form of astronomy, a Summer<\/p>\n

      Solstice orientation rather than Winter solstice and possibly even a different pole star,<\/p>\n

      even a twelve sided, zodiac year rather than the octagonal lunar year. And we pretty<\/p>\n

      much know where they came from.<\/p>\n

      The stones in the Great Circle are almost clones of the rough hewn stones found<\/p>\n

      at Stonehenge and Avebury in England and Carnac in Brittany. This means that the<\/p>\n

      people who came later to Newgrange were probably from England or Brittany. In other<\/p>\n

      words a later generation of astronomers occupied Newgrange and added a ring of their<\/p>\n

      own design to the already functioning mound.<\/p>\n

      The stones of the Great Circle also align with other mounds in the Boyne Valley<\/p>\n

      complex, so whoever placed them \u2014 and however different their astronomy \u2014 the<\/p>\n

      architects of the Great Circle knew how the original mound worked. This is evident<\/p>\n

      because they aligned the outer stones with the lightbeam and used them to cast shad-<\/p>\n

      ows on certain specific stones in the original kerb. Stone #1 of the Great Circle stands<\/p>\n

      in alignment with the entrance stone and also aligns along a hypothetical meridian,<\/p>\n

      with the beautifully carved stone at the rear of the mound on the Northwest side.<\/p>\n

      Here we see at least two and possibly four or more stages of evolution in architecture<\/p>\n

      all played out at Newgrange, but in spite of the architectural differences the various<\/p>\n

      stages work in harmony. This implies that the architects knew about and venerated the<\/p>\n

      older cultures. They may have even been genetically related to them. Unfortunately,<\/p>\n

      the idea that these mounds represent multiple occupations over vast periods is not a<\/p>\n

      Plan of Newgrange showing<\/em><\/p>\n

      the chamber, the passage<\/em><\/p>\n

      and the almost heart<\/em><\/p>\n

      shaped kerb line.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 65<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 4<\/p>\n

      popular theme and rubs against current interpretations.<\/p>\n

      Since professor O\u2019Kelly was never one to rock the boat,<\/p>\n

      he simply omitted a few salient facts about the dates from<\/p>\n

      cooking pits found beneath the outer stones. The cooking<\/p>\n

      pits were dated by recalibrated Bristle cone pine com-<\/p>\n

      parison to 2200 B.C.. \u00b1 100. This means that the stones<\/p>\n

      of the Great Circle were erected almost 1000 years after<\/p>\n

      Newgrange collapsed. In other words it was still in use<\/p>\n

      as a shdow dial after its primary collapse.<\/p>\n

      Layering and progressive occupation by various<\/p>\n

      cul tures are common elements of most dig sites from<\/p>\n

      Mesopotamia to Koster Farm in Missouri. From a<\/p>\n

      statistical viewpoint it would be anomalous if these sites<\/p>\n

      were occupied by one, and only one, culture. To assume<\/p>\n

      that subsequent layers may have existed, but that the later<\/p>\n

      occupants had no knowledge of the earlier inhabitants is<\/p>\n

      ridiculous since the mounds, and their calendar functions,<\/p>\n

      have always been obvious to anyone who walks by even<\/p>\n

      in their collapsed state. At Dowth Roman votive coins<\/p>\n

      have been found from the legions stationed in Wales, so<\/p>\n

      even tourists from the Roman legions knew about the<\/p>\n

      sanctity of the monuments. 3<\/p>\n

      So we are now faced with analyzing not just who did<\/p>\n

      what in ancient Ireland, but what they did and how their<\/p>\n

      technology functioned. The best way to discover just<\/p>\n

      how advanced these people were, and perhaps why they<\/p>\n

      built such complex stone theaters, is to reconstruct the<\/p>\n

      lightbeam at Newgrange.<\/p>\n

      ON THE BEAM<\/p>\n

      Lightbeams are easy to find, once you start looking for<\/p>\n

      them. We now know that hundreds of lightbeam mounds<\/p>\n

      exist in Ireland, England Wales and Brittany and that the<\/p>\n

      lightbeam technology that built Newgrange extended<\/p>\n

      from Spain to the North of Scotland, but oddly enough<\/p>\n

      no two beam setups are identical. Some are short, some<\/p>\n

      are long, some mark solstices some mark equinox and<\/p>\n

      cross-quarter days, some are almost dull and faded due<\/p>\n

      to occluding shrubbery, others are buried and many have<\/p>\n

      been destroyed by vandals. More importantly some of<\/p>\n

      them dial moonbeams and others track stars, planets<\/p>\n

      and, of course, the earth\u2019s rotation in alignment with the<\/p>\n

      sun. Luckily the beam at Newgrange \u2014 the most studied<\/p>\n

      megalithic lightbeam in the world \u2014 the most fascinat-<\/p>\n

      ing and the most complex, still works. Once you see the<\/p>\n

      operational technology at Newgrange you will begin to<\/p>\n

      Page Opposite: The<\/em><\/p>\n

      photo sequence shows<\/em><\/p>\n

      the lightbeam entering<\/em><\/p>\n

      Newgrange throughout<\/em><\/p>\n

      the week of the Winter<\/em><\/p>\n

      Solstice. In 3200 b.c.,<\/em><\/p>\n

      the solstice event was<\/em><\/p>\n

      so important it needed<\/em><\/p>\n

      to be monitored for as<\/em><\/p>\n

      many days as possible,<\/em><\/p>\n

      mainly because one<\/em><\/p>\n

      can never count on<\/em><\/p>\n

      the Irish weather or<\/em><\/p>\n

      the whims of Great<\/em><\/p>\n

      Bolg, the thunder and<\/em><\/p>\n

      lightening god who<\/em><\/p>\n

      seems to have migrated<\/em><\/p>\n

      to Greece as Zeus and<\/em><\/p>\n

      to Mexico as Tloch.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Setting the mound<\/em><\/p>\n

      up in wood would be a<\/em><\/p>\n

      risky business. Nobody<\/em><\/p>\n

      moves 200 tons of<\/em><\/p>\n

      stones into place unless<\/em><\/p>\n

      they want it to survive<\/em><\/p>\n

      the next winter. That<\/em><\/p>\n

      is why the builders<\/em><\/p>\n

      of Newgrange, wisely<\/em><\/p>\n

      observed the heavens<\/em><\/p>\n

      all year long. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 66<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 5<\/p>\n

      Bottom: Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      lower beam, from<\/em><\/p>\n

      inside. Winter Solstice,<\/em><\/p>\n

      1981.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Center: Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      outside looking<\/em><\/p>\n

      northwest. Beam splits<\/em><\/p>\n

      into two sections then<\/em><\/p>\n

      merges further up the<\/em><\/p>\n

      passage.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Top: Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      outside as beam forms<\/em><\/p>\n

      on Winter Solstice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 67<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 6<\/p>\n

      understand the other sites.<\/p>\n

      If we could peel the top from Newgrange we would<\/p>\n

      see a heart shaped, circle defined by the kerbstones. The<\/p>\n

      passage mouth is guarded by a beautifully carved stone<\/p>\n

      with a number of spirals on it. This is called the \u201cEntrance<\/p>\n

      Stone.\u201d Directly in-line with the Entrance Stone, in the<\/p>\n

      rear of the mound, lies another beautifully carved stone<\/p>\n

      with intricate patterns of amazing depth and complexity.<\/p>\n

      This easily could be called the \u201cExit Stone\u201d but as of this<\/p>\n

      writing it is known only as # NG-K54. This Northwest<\/p>\n

      facing stone is rarely seen as it is off limits to tourists.<\/p>\n

      Above the entrance stone the mound itself holds a<\/p>\n

      roofbox which forms the first part of the beam. This is<\/p>\n

      a flat stone setup on smaller stones to form an aperture<\/p>\n

      box. This stone has a trimmed front edge which is carved<\/p>\n

      with eight interlaced boxes each with an x pattern across<\/p>\n

      the center. This pattern has been variously interpreted as<\/p>\n

      eight quatrefoils and as a series of thirty-one chevrons or<\/p>\n

      \u201cV\u201d shapes. All of these numbers are important.<\/p>\n

      The number eight, in general, refers to the eight festival<\/p>\n

      days of the ancient Atlantic year \u2014 the Equinoxes, the<\/p>\n

      Solstices and the four cross quarter days. It may also refer,<\/p>\n

      in this specific context, to the number of days the beam<\/p>\n

      came in during the ancient Winter Solstice season.<\/p>\n

      Let us now take a closer look at the Newgrange beam,<\/p>\n

      but try to understand that the stones create the beams.<\/p>\n

      The dials will operate with or without the carvings. The<\/p>\n

      only reason the carvings exist at all is to mark exact<\/p>\n

      event points and to help teach the system. In the purest<\/p>\n

      sense the carvings are a form of writing, an architectural<\/p>\n

      shorthand.<\/p>\n

      With the grassy mound peeled away we would see at<\/p>\n

      least five important carved stones lined up to intersect the<\/p>\n

      lightbeam. These either deflect, reflect, shape, or occlude<\/p>\n

      the beam in some way. Like a modern laser or heliostat<\/p>\n

      all of the lens and apertures combined would work to<\/p>\n

      collimate the beam \u2014 to make it more coherent. The last<\/p>\n

      stone in the passage, which is also the \u201cAtlas Stone\u201d and the<\/p>\n

      first stone of the chamber, possesses a series of ribs which<\/p>\n

      sharpen the beam on various days, as the process does<\/p>\n

      go on for about eight days. This stone may have been the<\/p>\n

      first laid out when construction began. At this point the<\/p>\n

      lightbeam strikes various markings on upright stones and<\/p>\n

      seems to \u201cread them.\u201d What the original builders meant<\/p>\n

      by this is speculative since errors must have cropped up<\/p>\n

      due to reconstruction of the mound and settling over the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 68<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 7<\/p>\n

      The Winter Solstice beam. Overhead view.<\/em><\/p>\n

      The position of the basin stone is theoretical, but<\/em><\/p>\n

      highly probable. The curves in the passage create<\/em><\/p>\n

      a long waveform which converts normal daylight<\/em><\/p>\n

      into a coherent beam when projected through<\/em><\/p>\n

      various horizontal and vertical apertures.<\/em><\/p>\n

      These structures can collimate or split the beam<\/em><\/p>\n

      into different shapes and colors. This technical<\/em><\/p>\n

      marvel is one of the most ingenious designs<\/em><\/p>\n

      found anywhere in the ancient world.<\/em><\/p>\n

      One would be remiss not to mention the<\/em><\/p>\n

      additional probability that the beam may have<\/em><\/p>\n

      been passed through a quartz lens to create<\/em><\/p>\n

      a spectral color display. Bolg, the rainbow<\/em><\/p>\n

      maker, is present in the chamber as the pilgrim<\/em><\/p>\n

      observers the sanctified beam passing through<\/em><\/p>\n

      the visible spectrum. As the drama continues<\/em><\/p>\n

      the true purpose of the beam and the mound is<\/em><\/p>\n

      revealed, but the observer is reminded that this<\/em><\/p>\n

      can only happen under controlled conditions in<\/em><\/p>\n

      the womb of the great mother.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Right: Fully<\/em><\/p>\n

      collimated beam<\/em><\/p>\n

      as seen on Solstice<\/em><\/p>\n

      morning<\/em><\/p>\n

      Left: Normal daylight<\/em><\/p>\n

      and electrical lights as<\/em><\/p>\n

      seen by visitors year<\/em><\/p>\n

      round.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Above:<\/em><\/p>\n

      Cutaway of<\/em><\/p>\n

      passage as<\/em><\/p>\n

      the upright<\/em><\/p>\n

      stones and<\/em><\/p>\n

      curves<\/em><\/p>\n

      impinge on<\/em><\/p>\n

      the forming<\/em><\/p>\n

      coherent<\/em><\/p>\n

      beam.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 69<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 8<\/p>\n

      centuries, i.e., the current floor in the inner chamber is at<\/p>\n

      least fifteen centimeters higher than before reconstruction<\/p>\n

      \u2014 but generally the markings denote astronomy related<\/p>\n

      events.<\/p>\n

      The light first moves over the horizon across the<\/p>\n

      river. This does not occur at dawn, but rather at about<\/p>\n

      09:45. The town of Duleek on the other side of the hill is<\/p>\n

      completely bathed in morning light by the time the sun<\/p>\n

      clears the hilltop, at Ros na Rig, (pronounced Rossnaree)<\/p>\n

      in front of Newgrange. In a fundamental sense the ridge<\/p>\n

      line across the river represents the first occlusive device<\/p>\n

      in this particular beam. Notches and certain other man<\/p>\n

      made attributes have been observed in a direct Southeast<\/p>\n

      line along the ridge, but there is no doubt the ridge line<\/p>\n

      acts as the earth\u2019s horizon in this particular theodolite<\/p>\n

      or \u201cterrascope,\u201d to coin a phrase. Look carefully and you<\/p>\n

      will see the line between Ros na Ree and Newgrange. This<\/p>\n

      is probably one of the most mystical spots on earth.<\/p>\n

      The background glow of the sky is bright on a clear day,<\/p>\n

      but no direct sunlight hits the mound. The beam begins<\/p>\n

      to form when the first few degrees of the suns disk pop<\/p>\n

      slightly above the horizon . The light from this small arc<\/p>\n

      begins to illuminate Standing Stone #1 in The Great Circle<\/p>\n

      outside of the Entrance Stone itself. This is not critical for<\/p>\n

      the beam event, but shows that the people who built the<\/p>\n

      Above and<\/em><\/p>\n

      Opposite: Jack<\/em><\/p>\n

      Robert\u2019s renderings<\/em><\/p>\n

      of the entrance to<\/em><\/p>\n

      Newgrange and it\u2019s<\/em><\/p>\n

      carved Roof Box. The<\/em><\/p>\n

      eight chevron patterns<\/em><\/p>\n

      are numerically<\/em><\/p>\n

      critical. The beam<\/em><\/p>\n

      enters the roofbox for<\/em><\/p>\n

      eight days. Note the<\/em><\/p>\n

      slab door to the right<\/em><\/p>\n

      behind the entrance<\/em><\/p>\n

      stone. This slab can<\/em><\/p>\n

      be opened or closed to<\/em><\/p>\n

      any degree across the<\/em><\/p>\n

      lower opening.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 70<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      6 9<\/p>\n

      Great Circle, 500 years after the dedication of Newgrange,<\/p>\n

      understood the lightbeam phenomenon. This stone does<\/p>\n

      add one interesting statement to the overall technology.<\/p>\n

      Stone #1 covers the Entrance Stone in a shadow dur-<\/p>\n

      ing the event. If Stone #1 were wrapped in wicker and<\/p>\n

      perhaps took the form of a taller, more slender, gnomon<\/p>\n

      it would cast a very precise finger shadow on the Entrance<\/p>\n

      Stone.<\/p>\n

      The growing beam now moves to about twenty-five<\/p>\n

      percent of the suns disc above the horizon. The white<\/p>\n

      quartz begins to glow yellow and orange and remains<\/p>\n

      aglow for the entire length of the event \u2014 approximately<\/p>\n

      twenty minutes.<\/p>\n

      The face of the Entrance Stone grows brighter as the<\/p>\n

      suns rays angle down from the increasing horizon angle.<\/p>\n

      The disk is now fifty percent exposed and is obviously at<\/p>\n

      its widest profile relative to the horizon. Here the depth<\/p>\n

      of field is very flat and details seem blurry. As the earth<\/p>\n

      rotates, the suns angle moves up to enter the passage<\/p>\n

      opening and the light begins to slide between two roof<\/p>\n

      slabs set up to create an opening called the \u201cRoofbox.\u201d<\/p>\n

      The stone below the roofbox is etched with a number<\/p>\n

      of masons marks which were probably used to align the<\/p>\n

      stone before the capstone was permanently fixed. Here<\/p>\n

      the passage is moving to create a coherent light source<\/p>\n

      almost like a modern laser. Astonishing as this seems the<\/p>\n

      beam splitter is fundamental to most functional lasers in<\/p>\n

      use today.<\/p>\n

      Now we have two beams in the process of focusing to<\/p>\n

      a point somewhere down the passage. The upper beam<\/p>\n

      has been cut by a rectangular aperture in a horizontal<\/p>\n

      axis, the lower beam has been cut into a much taller,<\/p>\n

      but quickly shortening vertical axis. The deployment of<\/p>\n

      a split beam is not uncommon in megalithic technology.<\/p>\n

      Roofbox stone at<\/em><\/p>\n

      Newgrange. (detail)<\/em><\/p>\n

      Jack Roberts<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 71<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 0<\/p>\n

      A moonbeam, Cairn T, Loughcrew also splits into two<\/p>\n

      sections and the roofbox concept can be seen in various<\/p>\n

      forms at Knowth and Dowth.<\/p>\n

      Now both beams are dull orange in color and both<\/p>\n

      are softer to a camera light meter. The beams remain<\/p>\n

      separate, capable of deeper penetration, but the upper<\/p>\n

      beam is now very narrow and is already penetrating into<\/p>\n

      the end recess of the main chamber. This is the home of<\/p>\n

      the famed triple spiral. The lower beam however is still<\/p>\n

      edging up the floor of the passage.<\/p>\n

      Both beams strike marks on stones as the earth moves.<\/p>\n

      A special stone designated R12, because it is the twelfth<\/p>\n

      stone on the right side of the passage, is dressed with<\/p>\n

      three rib-like marks and some indentations. These are<\/p>\n

      time alignment marks and have to do with the variations<\/p>\n

      in the days of the event. These are also masons alignment<\/p>\n

      marks so that the beam can be set up again if the mound<\/p>\n

      were to collapse. They may also be placement marks for<\/p>\n

      a wooden or bone shutter.<\/p>\n

      The upper beam never comes near the marks on R12,<\/p>\n

      but it does intersect with a stack of zigzags on stone R18.<\/p>\n

      It is here that the two beams glow so close to each other<\/p>\n

      that they potentiate or \u201chelp\u201d each other along. We can<\/p>\n

      now see that the earth (its false horizon aligned with the<\/p>\n

      passage) is moving. The beam does not move along the<\/p>\n

      passage it just appears to move. The entire observatory<\/p>\n

      is rotating triaxially to remain in line with the sun. Here<\/p>\n

      we see the two basal motions of our planet, it spins rela-<\/p>\n

      tive to a false horizon and it orbits relative to the sun. It<\/p>\n

      doesn\u2019t take long to realize that this could not have been<\/p>\n

      set up unless the builders already knew that the sun was<\/p>\n

      a fixed object.<\/p>\n

      The ribbed stone squares the upper beam so that it<\/p>\n

      can penetrate into the inner chamber. The lower beam<\/p>\n

      then traverses a gradient in the passage and negotiates<\/p>\n

      another slight curve, which again shapes it. The beams<\/p>\n

      begin to merge before the floor gradient begins, around<\/p>\n

      stone number R4, not at L19 as suggested by Brennan,<\/p>\n

      but the mechanics and optics of Newgrange are only now<\/p>\n

      being scrutinized. Clearly the markings on L19 and L22<\/p>\n

      relate to the beam\u2019s alignment and calibration.<\/p>\n

      I can not be sure what the mound builders had in<\/p>\n

      mind, but I am sure I observed a spectrum of light, not<\/p>\n

      two beams, nor a single beam with two phases, but a<\/p>\n

      combined, fully collimated, coherent lightbeam something<\/p>\n

      unique in the ancient world. In the original ceremony, the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 72<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 1<\/p>\n

      lower door could have been shut admitting only the upper<\/p>\n

      light or, conversely, the roofbox could have been plugged<\/p>\n

      admitting only the lower light. No one knows just what<\/p>\n

      the difference would be, or even if a certain ritual was<\/p>\n

      performed for different beams at different times. Perhaps<\/p>\n

      the dual purpose of the beam had to do with assurances<\/p>\n

      against bad weather, but whatever the reason we know<\/p>\n

      the beam functions along a laser survey line which neatly<\/p>\n

      divides the mound into two hemispheres, like the earth<\/p>\n

      itself. We also know that the inner chamber at Newgrange<\/p>\n

      is sur rounded by three smaller chambers called recesses,<\/p>\n

      each containing a basin stone. These, when viewed from<\/p>\n

      above, create a perfect cross similar to the Celtic crosses<\/p>\n

      seen all over Ireland, Scotland and Wales. With my own<\/p>\n

      eyes and with a number of witnesses I saw the sweeping<\/p>\n

      beam inscribe a cross of light in the inner chamber at<\/p>\n

      Newgrange. Is this not similar to a Christian ritual?<\/p>\n

      TRACKING TH E BEAM<\/p>\n

      Now let us look back down the passage toward the<\/p>\n

      entrance, as if we were seated on the floor of the main<\/p>\n

      chamber, roughly in the position once occupied by the<\/p>\n

      smaller basin stone. From this spot we see a small bright<\/p>\n

      isosceles triangle glowing in the distance. The glow does<\/p>\n

      not change and our focus becomes almost dream like.<\/p>\n

      The beam is moving towards us at a rate of about one<\/p>\n

      meter per minute. This motion is a linear translation of<\/p>\n

      the earth\u2019s rotation. The brightest portion of the beam<\/p>\n

      hits us right between the eyes, the dull portion sweeps<\/p>\n

      across the floor in front of us.<\/p>\n

      Obviously the inner chamber marks out a sacred<\/p>\n

      space. Perhaps the ground beneath this space was divine<\/p>\n

      even before the mound was built. The center is the point<\/p>\n

      of origin and the point of return, but it is also the point of<\/p>\n

      stasis. When the sunbeam enters the chamber in Winter<\/p>\n

      the plan is complete and the triple spiral is ani mated.<\/p>\n

      It should now be clear to anyone seated in the center<\/p>\n

      of the chamber that the sun is fixed and that the earth is<\/p>\n

      moving. Here then we see the real instructional mystery<\/p>\n

      behind almost all Neolithic beam technology. The idea<\/p>\n

      wasn\u2019t just to passively keep track of the clocks of the<\/p>\n

      cosmos so that the bones of the dead would be saturated<\/p>\n

      with sacred light, no, the idea was to use this chamber<\/p>\n

      to actively initiate Neolithic pilgrims into the deepest of<\/p>\n

      all mysteries \u2014 the fact that the sun stands still in the<\/p>\n

      center of the solar system. One might even suggest that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 73<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 2<\/p>\n

      lower door could have been shut admitting only the upper<\/p>\n

      light or, conversely, the roofbox could have been plugged<\/p>\n

      admitting only the lower light. No one knows just what<\/p>\n

      the difference would be, or even if a certain ritual was<\/p>\n

      performed for different beams at different times. Perhaps<\/p>\n

      the dual purpose of the beam had to do with assurances<\/p>\n

      against bad weather, but whatever the reason we know<\/p>\n

      the beam functions along a laser survey line which neatly<\/p>\n

      divides the mound into two hemispheres, like the earth<\/p>\n

      itself. We also know that the inner chamber at Newgrange<\/p>\n

      is sur rounded by three smaller chambers called recesses,<\/p>\n

      each containing a basin stone. These, when viewed from<\/p>\n

      above, create a perfect cross similar to the Celtic crosses<\/p>\n

      seen all over Ireland, Scotland and Wales. With my own<\/p>\n

      eyes and with a number of witnesses I saw the sweeping<\/p>\n

      beam inscribe a cross of light in the inner chamber at<\/p>\n

      Newgrange. Is this not similar to a Christian ritual?<\/p>\n

      TRACKING TH E BEAM<\/p>\n

      Now let us look back down the passage toward the<\/p>\n

      entrance, as if we were seated on the floor of the main<\/p>\n

      chamber, roughly in the position once occupied by the<\/p>\n

      smaller basin stone. From this spot we see a small bright<\/p>\n

      Above: Aerial view of<\/em><\/p>\n

      Newgrange c. 1968.<\/em><\/p>\n

      The mound was not<\/em><\/p>\n

      reconstructed correctly.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Please note the lynchet<\/em><\/p>\n

      marks and socket holes<\/em><\/p>\n

      on the flat top area.<\/em><\/p>\n

      O\u2019Kelley erroneously<\/em><\/p>\n

      reconstructed it into<\/em><\/p>\n

      a dome eventhough<\/em><\/p>\n

      he had thgis photo<\/em><\/p>\n

      survey at his disposal.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Some researchers think<\/em><\/p>\n

      the mound featured<\/em><\/p>\n

      a wooden platform <\/em><\/p>\n

      something like Silbury<\/em><\/p>\n

      Hill in England. The<\/em><\/p>\n

      platform would have<\/em><\/p>\n

      provided a perfect<\/em><\/p>\n

      observation site and<\/em><\/p>\n

      an ideal location for a<\/em><\/p>\n

      sundial or gnomon stone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 74<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 3<\/p>\n

      isosceles triangle glowing in the distance. The glow does<\/p>\n

      not change and our focus becomes almost dream like.<\/p>\n

      The beam is moving towards us at a rate of about one<\/p>\n

      meter per minute. This motion is a linear translation of<\/p>\n

      the earth\u2019s rotation. The brightest portion of the beam<\/p>\n

      hits us right between the eyes, the dull portion sweeps<\/p>\n

      across the floor in front of us.<\/p>\n

      Obviously the inner chamber marks out a sacred<\/p>\n

      space. Perhaps the ground beneath this space was divine<\/p>\n

      even before the mound was built. The center is the point<\/p>\n

      of origin and the point of return, but it is also the point of<\/p>\n

      stasis. When the sunbeam enters the chamber in Winter<\/p>\n

      Right: The main<\/em><\/p>\n

      chamber at Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      looking North as<\/em><\/p>\n

      photographed by Coffey<\/em><\/p>\n

      about the time of the<\/em><\/p>\n

      Easter Rebellion, 1916.<\/em><\/p>\n

      The mounds were often<\/em><\/p>\n

      used by the Finnians<\/em><\/p>\n

      to store guns and<\/em><\/p>\n

      munitions.<\/em><\/p>\n

      This photo supports<\/em><\/p>\n

      the belief that the<\/em><\/p>\n

      smaller basin stone<\/em><\/p>\n

      (the beam quern or<\/em><\/p>\n

      solar cauldron) was<\/em><\/p>\n

      located in the center of<\/em><\/p>\n

      the chamber prior to<\/em><\/p>\n

      O\u2019Kelly\u2019s excavation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 75<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 4<\/p>\n

      the plan is complete and the triple spiral is ani mated.<\/p>\n

      It should now be clear to anyone seated in the center<\/p>\n

      of the chamber that the sun is fixed and that the earth is<\/p>\n

      moving. Here then we see the real instructional mystery<\/p>\n

      behind almost all Neolithic beam technology. The idea<\/p>\n

      wasn\u2019t just to passively keep track of the clocks of the<\/p>\n

      cosmos so that the bones of the dead would be saturated<\/p>\n

      with sacred light, no, the idea was to use this chamber<\/p>\n

      to actively initiate Neolithic pilgrims into the deepest of<\/p>\n

      all mysteries \u2014 the fact that the sun stands still in the<\/p>\n

      center of the solar system. One might even suggest that<\/p>\n

      the mound was primarily designed to teach heliocentrism<\/p>\n

      in its most easily discernible and visceral form.<\/p>\n

      Copernicus explained this in a mathematical sense<\/p>\n

      more than four centuries ago, but until you can actually<\/p>\n

      see the beam acting as evidence of the earth\u2019s move-<\/p>\n

      ment against the fixed sun, you will remain geocentric,<\/p>\n

      and,basically, ignorant. This is the difference between two<\/p>\n

      and three dimensional thought \u2014 the difference between<\/p>\n

      black and white and color, between stereo and monaural<\/p>\n

      sound. We think we are enlightened because we hear<\/p>\n

      music, until a new technology comes along and allows<\/p>\n

      us to hear that same music in full surround stereo. We<\/p>\n

      Above: Newgrange,<\/em><\/p>\n

      capstone over passage<\/em><\/p>\n

      cracked during<\/em><\/p>\n

      reconstruction. Zigzags<\/em><\/p>\n

      and chevron or diamond<\/em><\/p>\n

      patterns indicate the<\/em><\/p>\n

      flow of days as reckoned<\/em><\/p>\n

      by the rising and setting<\/em><\/p>\n

      of the sun. This pattern<\/em><\/p>\n

      may also be associated<\/em><\/p>\n

      with the seasonal rising<\/em><\/p>\n

      of Cassiopeia.<\/em><\/p>\n

      This capstone appears<\/em><\/p>\n

      almost identical to the<\/em><\/p>\n

      one located at Fourknocks<\/em><\/p>\n

      overlooking the Boyne<\/em><\/p>\n

      Valley about 12 miles<\/em><\/p>\n

      to the south in County<\/em><\/p>\n

      Dublin. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 76<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 5<\/p>\n

      think we are going fast in the family sedan on a country<\/p>\n

      road until we ride a Turbo motorcycle on the freeway.<\/p>\n

      The lightbeam at Newgrange, and the other beams in the<\/p>\n

      megalithic sphere are teaching us that we must now see<\/p>\n

      the sun as the center of the solar system everyday and in<\/p>\n

      reality, not as some theoretical possibility that only effects<\/p>\n

      scientists.<\/p>\n

      Just before the upper beam enters the main chamber<\/p>\n

      it strikes an upright pillar stone designated R21, meaning<\/p>\n

      it is the twenty-first stone on the right side of the passage.<\/p>\n

      This stone may have been the first stone erected and could<\/p>\n

      easily be referred to as \u201cThe Axis Stone.\u201d Now we see that<\/p>\n

      the beam has touched stones on both sides of the passage<\/p>\n

      and is now busy \u201cilluminating \u201d or inscribing the walls.<\/p>\n

      At Newgrange the upper and lower beam meet three<\/p>\n

      feet above ground level at the point of the first collima-<\/p>\n

      tion curve. Not coincidentally the gradual up-ramp also<\/p>\n

      begins at this point. The beam forms first as the sun<\/p>\n

      enters through the lower doorway. From there it makes<\/p>\n

      its way towards the central passage where it parallels and<\/p>\n

      finally merges with the upper beam as it shines through<\/p>\n

      Below: View of the Boyne<\/em><\/p>\n

      River Valley looking west<\/em><\/p>\n

      from Newgrange toward<\/em><\/p>\n

      Tara and Knowth. An<\/em><\/p>\n

      astronomer standing<\/em><\/p>\n

      on top of the mound<\/em><\/p>\n

      can also see Dowth<\/em><\/p>\n

      to the east. Note the<\/em><\/p>\n

      ritual circle in front of<\/em><\/p>\n

      entrance stones. The<\/em><\/p>\n

      dotted line represents<\/em><\/p>\n

      the suns path on Winter<\/em><\/p>\n

      Solstice. These passage<\/em><\/p>\n

      temples appear to be<\/em><\/p>\n

      direct developments of<\/em><\/p>\n

      the Mesolithic court<\/em><\/p>\n

      cairns. This implies that<\/em><\/p>\n

      an unbroken chain of<\/em><\/p>\n

      belief came down to the<\/em><\/p>\n

      mound builders from<\/em><\/p>\n

      the earliest times.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 77<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 6<\/p>\n

      its roofbox aperature.<\/p>\n

      I have observed the beam formation at Newgrange on<\/p>\n

      a number of occasions and I assure you the beam arrives<\/p>\n

      through two distinct pathways. In the Winter of 1983, I<\/p>\n

      placed a series of prisms and reflectors in the beam on<\/p>\n

      Winter Solstice. A highly polished leaded quartz crystal<\/p>\n

      placed in the center of the main chamber about six inches<\/p>\n

      above the present floor level burst into prisms of light when<\/p>\n

      struck by the orange-yellow beam. When the beam struck<\/p>\n

      this device I began to spray mist from a water bottle to<\/p>\n

      simulate steam. As expected the main beam refracted<\/p>\n

      into colored rays. The effect was only momentary, but I<\/p>\n

      realized, at that point that these ancient mounds were<\/p>\n

      designed to do this. They may have been tombs, but they<\/p>\n

      were tombs full of light. The builders knew about prisms,<\/p>\n

      lenses, apperatures and refractive technology. Why else<\/p>\n

      Above: Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      before reconstruction<\/em><\/p>\n

      as seen from across the<\/em><\/p>\n

      River Boyne.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 78<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 7<\/p>\n

      would they use so much quartz, hauled from so many<\/p>\n

      miles away?<\/p>\n

      The symbolic number \u201c8\u201d pops up again. Is this the<\/p>\n

      meaning of the eight squares across the leading edge of<\/p>\n

      the roofbox? Was I watching the exact moment of Sol-<\/p>\n

      stice, the event most celebrated by the mound builders?<\/p>\n

      The basin stone must have had a similar effect when<\/p>\n

      filled with polished quartz stones or coated with shin-<\/p>\n

      ing quartz powder. Perhaps the basin wasn\u2019t used for<\/p>\n

      anything more than a seat for a human being who held<\/p>\n

      a lens as the beam entered \u2014 this may sound odd, but<\/p>\n

      stranger things have been suggested. Perhaps the build-<\/p>\n

      ers thought the beam had curative powers. Perhaps a fire<\/p>\n

      was created by concentrating the beam on a magnyfiying<\/p>\n

      lens. One theory postulates that a woman was positioned<\/p>\n

      in that exact location so that the beam would penetrate<\/p>\n

      her, or conversely that the beam would bathe the nativity<\/p>\n

      of a newbron child in a supernal light, thus making the<\/p>\n

      fertility ritual complete.<\/p>\n

      After the beam crosses the basin stone it continues to<\/p>\n

      the tenth stone inside the chamber. From there it works<\/p>\n

      its way to the triple spiral through a complex series of<\/p>\n

      maneuvers. Many people think the triple spiral is located<\/p>\n

      at the back of the North or \u201cEnd\u201d chamber, directly in line<\/p>\n

      with the beam as it enters, but this is not so. The famed<\/p>\n

      triple spiral is actually incised on the posterior face of the<\/p>\n

      eastern stone (the rightmost support stone) of the end<\/p>\n

      Above: Browneshill<\/em><\/p>\n

      Dolmen, County<\/em><\/p>\n

      Carlow. The capstone<\/em><\/p>\n

      is the largest in<\/em><\/p>\n

      Ireland and weighs<\/em><\/p>\n

      approximately 100<\/em><\/p>\n

      tons. A huge chunk<\/em><\/p>\n

      of glacial stone<\/em><\/p>\n

      was quarried and<\/em><\/p>\n

      dragged to the site.<\/em><\/p>\n

      No tomb or burial<\/em><\/p>\n

      was found. Structures<\/em><\/p>\n

      like this demonstrate<\/em><\/p>\n

      how various<\/em><\/p>\n

      experiments were<\/em><\/p>\n

      tried. The builders<\/em><\/p>\n

      of Newgrange were<\/em><\/p>\n

      not space people.<\/em><\/p>\n

      They tried and failed<\/em><\/p>\n

      hundreds of times.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Newgrange is only<\/em><\/p>\n

      one record of their<\/em><\/p>\n

      success.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Page 79<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The Stones of Ancient Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

      7 8<\/p>\n

      FURTHER READING :<\/p>\n

      Orpen, Goddar 1894. p. 115-128.<\/p>\n

      Joyce, P.W. Wonders of Ireland. p131<\/p>\n

      \u2014 Irish Place Names<\/em>, Fred Hanna Ltd. Dublin<\/p>\n

      Newgrange is now calibrated to 3500 b.c. \u00b1 200. The Great Circle stones date 2200-1890 b.c. thus<\/p>\n

      a period of almost 1500 years might have elapsed between the construction of the mound and the<\/p>\n

      erection of the stone circle and yet both building groups understood the functions of the mound.<\/p>\n

      This can only mean that information was passed on from one society to the other, even beyond the<\/p>\n

      clan or tribe.<\/p>\n

      Santillana, G. Hamlet\u2019s Mill.<\/p>\n

      The beam phenomenon is terrestrial and geodesic. The beam begins to form above<\/p>\n

      the real horizon using the ridge line across the Boyne to the Southeast near Donore<\/p>\n

      village. Several marker stones have been located that would indicate the alignment<\/p>\n

      was originally made at that point. If this is correct then there are eight actual points<\/p>\n

      of collimation in the formation of the beam, two outside the tumulus and five inside.<\/p>\n

      In this hypothesis both the roof box and the door portal act as beam splitters. In other<\/p>\n

      words, the beam is rough formed before it ever gets to the mounds entrance itself. This<\/p>\n

      is astonishing technology for a tribe of Neolithic farmers. One can almost forgive the<\/p>\n

      ludites who think this came from extraterrestrials, but it didn\u2019t\u2014it was built by our<\/p>\n

      ancestors.<\/p>\n

      This site has no rating<\/p>\n

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      This is the html version of the file https:\/\/www.arkives.com\/soai\/soai.pdf\u00a0. Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web. Page 1 Page 2 The Stones of Ancient Ireland Page 3 Arkives Press San Francisco THE STONES OF ANCIENT IRELAND HANK HARRISON a Stone Hunter\u2019s Field GuiDE Page 4 The Stones of Ancient Ireland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5322],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}