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New Stone Age
Alignment Issues
Alignment of megalithic monuments with celestial bodies is a hot issue in pseudo-archaeology. To sift the wheat from the chaff we must differentiate between alignment with solar events, such as solstices and equinoxes, and assumed alignments with stars and constellations. We are quite receptive to the first kind of alignments, but extremely cynical towards the second category. Let us try to explain the difference between the two.
The earth is involved in three different rotations. First of all the earth rotates around its rotation axis (the blue line in the figure below). This movement take about 24 hours to complete and is responsible for the earthly rhythm of day and night. The second rotation is around the sun. For convenience sake we set the duration of this cycle on one year. Because the earth's rotation axis is not perpendicular to its orbit around the sun the earthlings can enjoy seasonal changes. The image below depict the situation on the shortest day of the year on the northern hemisphere, which is 21 or 22 December or the Winter Solstice (on the southern hemisphere it is obviously the opposite, but we do not want to make things more complicated).
The next image depict the four main solar events as seen from the sun. After the Winter Solstice [1] the days grow longer and on 21 or 22 March the equator is aligned with the sun: the March equinox [2]. Three months further in time the earth reach the Summer Solstice [3]. On 21 or 22 September the equator again pass the so-called ecliptic plane [4] and on 21 or 22 December the earth is back at its starting point.
The duration of these two rotations, as well as the orbit from the earth around the sun and therewith the succession of seasons, is quite fixed. Ancient structures built in alignment with for example the Winter Solstice are still aligned with the Winter Solstice. Alignment with constellations however is thwarted by a third rotating movement.
The rotation axis of the earth itself rotates around the perpendicular axis. A full rotation takes about 26,000 years or so, but as a result the star-spangled sky as seen by the megalith builders was completely different as it is today. At this juncture we can use Polaris to determine the north, hence its popular names the North Star and Pole Star, but around 3000 BCE the earth's rotation axis pointed towards a star known as Thuban. In other words: we see a composition of stones perfectly aligned with for example the constellation of Virgo, but a Neolithic farmer saw a heap of rubble.
Despite the harsh environment and unbalanced diet the Middle Stone Age, or Mesolithic, inhabitants of Ireland not only managed to survive, but also to multiply. It is estimated that several thousand people lived on Ireland when, around 4000 BCE, the lifestyle gradually changed from a Mesolithic semi-nomadic hunters-gatherers style to a farming society.
It is not quite clear how this transition took place, but it is likely that a tribe from the European mainland introduced agriculture into Britain and Ireland. Besides farming techniques the farmers also brought livestock and crops to Ireland, an unprecedented operation in those days.
For some time it was assumed that the Mesolithic hunters-gatherers were ousted by the New Stone Age, or Neolithic farmers. Recent findings, among which DNA comparisons showing shared ancestry, belie a violent take over of the land. Apparently the hunters-gatherers and farmers lived side-by-side, intermarried and conducted trade in one mixed community for centuries. In contrast with the hunters-gatherers the farmers gained wealth and status by their properties. Tending your own cattle and farmland became a popular choice of profession and little by little the farmers gained the upper hand.
Obviously this modern point of view downgrades the borderline between the Mesolithic and Neolithic. What seemed to be a well defined giant leap followed by an U-turn for mankind is in fact nothing more than an artificial, merely academic, construct.
The appearance of Ireland in 4000 BCE was completely different as it is today. The famous Irish meadows and rolling hills were covered with dense forests of oak and elm trees, and the climate was much like the Mediterranean climate nowadays. The coming farmers headed for the cooler and less densely wooded uplands and hills and started to clear the forest. Initially they depended on flint tools, but soon they discovered porcellanite, a hard black stone, in Country Antrim. Equipped with porcelanite tools clearing forests and digging irrigation channels was a piece of cake for the farmers. Porcellanite tools originating from the discovered quarries in Tievebulliagh and on Rathlin Island surface throughout Ireland and Britain.
Community of Farmers
In contrast with the nomadic lifestyle of the hunters-gatherers a farmer is obviously tied to his farm. As a result the Neolithic farmers spent more effort in their houses. More comfortable and larger houses made of wood, twigs and clay replaced the dome-tent-like shelters. The farmers also tended to life in larger, village-like, communities with several families.
The complexity of the society increased with the establishment of farms. To guarantee a peaceful society in the villages and to develop and maintain irrigation systems some sort of community spirit was essential and the rights of the cattle and land owner needed regulation.
An example of the increasing complexity is discovered in County Mayo. Safely preserved under a layer of peat a field system appeared. Strips of land divided in fields, known as Céide Fields, each with its own small stone wall enclosure.
While the success of the hunter-gatherers depended largely on their own skills and experience, it is impossible to set up a large and successful farm in just one generation without any form of social organisation. The wealth and therewith the social status of a farmer is mainly archived by the skills of his ancestors. Ancestor-worshipping and laws of succession were about to be born.
An other consequence of the evolution from hunter to farmer concerns the rhythm of the day. The hunters relied on the twilight and preferably hunted in the light of the moon. Farmers do not need the cover of darkness, on the contrary farming is a daytime activity. Instead of the moon cycle the cycle of the sun and the seasons dictated daily life in the farmer community.
The hectic sowing and harvesting seasons alternated with seasons of growth and rest. For the first time in history mankind had time to spare.
Permanent settlements and spare time provided the conditions to express gratitude towards the ancestors by building monuments. They used megaliths, or huge stones, for these monuments, a material widely available.
It is likely that in time the system of ancestor-worshipping and the important cycle of the seasons evolved in something which can be described as religion.
Irish Megaliths
Somewhere between 4600 and 3800 BCE the Irish farmers started to erect and pile stones. The lack of artefacts found in tombs creates a dating problem for archaeologists and due to this problem it is unsure how megalithic building started in Ireland. In short there are two movements: those who assume that the Irish Neolithic farmers started to built stone tombs by themselves and those who assume that megalithic building was introduced in Ireland by tribes from Britain or the European mainland.
According the first movement the start of megalithic building in Ireland is unrelated to megalithic building elsewhere in Europe. The trump in their hand can be found at the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery in County Sligo. On this cemetery is a tomb which is dated at 4600 BCE, well before the megalithic structures on Britain and in Europe. Although this statement is controversial, finding counter-evidence seems impossible.
The second movement reject the early dating of the tomb at Carrowmore. They consider the similarities between the Irish megalithic monuments and those on Britain and in France too striking to be coincidental. According to this theory megalithic building arrived in Ireland somewhere between 4000 and 3800 BCE.
The exact purpose of the structures is also unknown. Often the term tomb is used for these structures. Some of them indeed produced human bones or cremation remains, but even more are excavated without producing human remains. It seems safe however to assume that these monuments served some sort of a religious or ceremonial need, maybe in combination with astrological purposes.
Because of the eye-catching character of the megalithic structures in size as well as in numbers (there are about 1450 megalithic tombs still existing in Ireland) we incline to promote these tombs to centre pieces of the Neolithic community. Maybe the whole idea of megaliths as communal or religious pivot points in the Neolithic community only exists in our minds. In fact all we know for sure is one big hollowness in our knowledge. So please, enjoy all pseudo-scientific theories you can find on the Internet (and have a good laugh occasionally), but distrust those who claim to have The Knowledge.
Court tombs
Creggandevesky Court Tomb
(authors collection)
Court tombs were the first structures that appeared. A court tomb consists of a court and a gallery, the actual tomb. The layout of the court, an open ceremonial space enclosed with stone slabs, defines the sub-category. There are for example single court tombs, which usually have a horse-shoe shaped court, full court tombs with a circular formed court and double court tombs, with two courts on either side of the gallery. The gallery itself is usually a rectangular covered sort of passageway made of stone slabs and divided in two or more chambers. Originally the gallery was covered with a cairn, a manmade hill of smaller stones and earth. Most of the cairns are eroded or used for building houses and fences.
Most court tombs can be found in areas where the forest was the thinnest: 200 meters above sea level and in the north and east coastal regions. Schoolbook examples of court tombs are the Creevykeel Court Tomb in County Sligo and the Creggandevesky Court Tomb in County Tyrone.
Court tombs are not an example of millennia lasting architecture. For the layman they are just an uninteresting collection of rocks. Perhaps you find the wedge tomb and portal tombs more appealing.
Portal tombs
Poulnabrone Portal Dolmen, The Burren
(authors collection)
A well preserved portal tomb consists of a chamber and a cairn. Even if the cairn is gone a portal tomb is easy to recognise. Two standing portal-stones, sometimes assisted by smaller stones, are holding a large capstone to create the chamber. Sometimes there is a small door-stone between the portal-stones. The cairn, mostly disappeared, was in line with the chamber.
Unlike court tombs you can find portal tombs all over Ireland. Due to their appearance portal tombs are also known as dolmen, an imported old French word meaning Stone Table.
Some portal tombs have a puzzling feature: a small stone placed on one of the standing portal-stones. For some reason it seems to be paramount that the slant of the capstone was approximately 15 degrees, which is coincidentally also the inclination of the earth to the solar plane.
The Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, in County Clare, and the Kilclooney Dolmen, in County Donegal, are some fine examples of portal tombs.
Wedge tombs
With the construction of wedge tombs the Neolithic men entered the real world of construction. You can recognise a wedge tomb by it trapezium shape: a large front facade and smaller at the back. Most wedge tombs consist of an antechamber separated by a stone slab from the actual burial chamber. The similarity of the Irish wedge tombs and those in Brittany, France, are suggesting a cultural connection between the two regions.
The people who built wedge tombs lived in an era in which the climate started to change. The temperature dropped from Mediterranean values to, heuh well, Irish standards. Quite suddenly the sun enforced the rhythm of live. This climate change is reflected in the alignment of the monuments with the solstice. The art of aligning was brought to perfection in the next stage.
Technically speaking we are now in the Bronze Age, but for the sake of the story we continue with the passage tombs. Stone circles, also a trendy phenomenon in the Bronze Age, on the other hand are discussed in the next chapter.
Passage tombs
Newgrange Passage Tomb, Brú na Bóinne
(authors collection)
Passage tombs are, compared with court tombs and portal tombs, a whole different ballgame and scholars are suggesting that they are built by completely other people.
Characteristic for a passage tomb is the huge cairn, sometimes also called a mound, with a corridor leading to a chamber. In fact a passage tomb is an elaborated stone circle filled with layers of stones and earth. Passage tombs are seemingly created to stand out as they are mostly located on hilltops, overlooking a river or valley. Sometimes they are grouped together to form some sort of a necropolis. Totally unique in tomb-land are the decorations carved in corridor and chamber stones.
These inscriptions and the alignment of these monuments with events like solstices and the equinox makes them subject of countless fluffy theories. If you like you can find plenty of these theories on the internet.
There seems to be a consensus that most of the designs are representing celestial bodies, while the meaning of the spiral-shaped designs is still unknown. Regarding the alignment we can imagine that it was crucial for a community of farmers to know when the winter was about to arrive and when the spring was in the air.
The most famous passage tomb is Newgrange, located in the Boyne Valley. The passage and chamber of Newgrange are perfectly aligned with the winter solstice sunrise. Newgrange is also famous for its tri-spiral design. This design was carved at least 2500 years before the arrival of the Celts, to whom this design often is ascribed. The use of spirals was not a local habit: the design also appeared on the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery in County Sligo on other site of Ireland.
Most likely this symbol refers to the interrelation between birth, death and rebirth. Perhaps a coincidence but the similarity between the tri-spiral design and the Trinity Knot, also known as Triskelle and the shamrock is staggering. However as we already stated the real meaning of the tri-spiral is guesswork of the highest level.
When the Celts arrived in Ireland they inherited a land with enormous monuments. Some of them decorated with symbols they did not understand and aligned perfectly with major solar events. Just like the pseudo-scientists of today they tried to explain what they saw.
The Celts believed that the monuments acted as gateways to Tír na nÓg, or World of the Young, the world of the Tuatha de Danaan deities, the fairies and the legendary heroes. Newgrange was in their minds the home of The Dagda and the legendary hero Fionn MacCumhail was assumed to be asleep in the Sheebeg Tomb in County Leitrim.