Mysteries of The World – Newgrange

Newgrange (called An Liamh Greine in Irish, meaning cave of the sun) is a grave complex in the Irish county of Meath. Built during the Bronze Age some 5000 years ago, it is older than the pyramids of Giza and even Stonehenge. Newgrange is one of the earliest structures that proves prehistoric cultures had sophisticated knowledge of astronomy.

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AN ASTROLOGICAL CULT SITE

Newgrange is constructed of both megaliths and individual unworked stones. Taken together, these roughly form a circle with a diameter of almost 130 feet. It is thought that it must have taken twenty years to erect the stone circle alone, and that perhaps 300 men were involved in building this monumental grave. The outer wall was finished with a cladding of quartzite, a medium-grained stone. This quartzite was heavily damaged over the course of the millenia, but it was restored following the excavation of the gravesite.

Newgrange had an entryway 56 feet long with a narrow, 33 foot high shaft at one end. For approximately a week before and following the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21st, sunlight enters this shaft, travels along the passageway, and terminates at a stone block decorated with spirals. Given the size of the stone and earlier finds of bone at the site, it has long been assumed that this stone was originally an altar used for human sacrifice. It is now known that the dead were burned outside the monument, after which their remains were laid to rest within Newgrange.

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ARE THE SPIRALS DIVINE SYMBOLS?

Spirals are found on many stones at Newgrange that do not belong directly to the outer wall. Their exact meaning is not understood, although some people surmise that they symbolize a deity. this should explain their frequent appearance and also give the passage of the sun, which terminates at a spiral-decorated stone, increased meaning. It may be that the people who founded Newgrange worshipped the sun as a god, as was the case in may other earlier civilizations. This proposal is supported by the orientation of the complex as a whole, which itself presupposes astronomical knowledge.

There are other monumental graves dating from approximately the same time period in Scotland and Ireland, including some that are architecturally more noteworthy than Newgrange. But only here is the entire complex laid out so exactly in line with the sun’s rays and their movement that the phenomenon of the wandering sunbeam is possible. This suggests that the sun had a very special meaning for the builders, perhaps even taking on the rank of a deity.

Even after the age of Newgrange was established, conjecture and speculation remained. Nothing is known regarding which culture of that time period could possibly have been responsible for its construction. Few useful traces of art or other remains of this civilization have been found either inside the grave complex or elsewhere. Today Newgrange is open to tourists, for whom the path of the sun at winter solstice is artificially recreated.

Between 1962 and 1975, Newgrange was partially reconstructed by archaeologists, who repaired the other wall.(Source)

Incised spirals decorate many stones at Newgrange. It is thought that these are symbols of the divinity to which the complex is dedicated. (Source)