| Newgrange is a prehistoric monument located in County Meath, on the eastern side of Ireland, about one
kilometer north of the River Boyne. An example of a megalithic passage tomb mound, Newgrange was built between circa 3100 and 2900 BC, during the Neolithic period. To our team, Newgrange represents the origins of strategic thinking and complex planning. Once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage into the chamber for about 17 minutes and illuminates the chamber floor. This alignment is too precise to be widely considered to be formed by chance. To this day, experts are unsure how the builders of Newgrange achieved this feat.
Newgrange is one of around 150 Neolithic Irish passage tombs that survive to us today, so it seems clear that it was constructed by a culture that built many similar structures, albeit most of which were smaller and simpler. Archaeological evidence shows that some of the simpler passage-graves, such as the ones situated near to the main Neolithic mound at Knowth and also that atop the nearby Slieve na Calliagh, were older than Newgrange and so it has been proposed that the Irish tomb builders gradually developed the skills to create larger and more complex tombs over the generation. The Neolithic people who built the monument were native agriculturalists, growing crops and raising animals such as cattle in the area, where their settlements were located; they had not yet developed metal, so all their tools would have been made out of stone, wood, antler or bone.
For further information about Newgrange, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange. |
