A point of light Description

HEADINGS:- Newgrange, Bru Na Boinne / Roofbox Aperture / Sun's disk as a Point of Light / A Predictor to the Winter Solstice? / Sites A & B / The Great Circle / Other Internal/External Iconography / Preliminary Findings

Sun's Disc as a Point of Light

Of course reducing the sun's disc to a point will mean that no strong source of light could be indirectly observed. It would have to be directly seen from the chamber area. But because the chamber floor is only 15 cms lower than the roofbox level, you would have to lie on your back with your head cocked and facing out the chamber. A bit impractical don't you think? No, it would be more advantageous to position yourself somewhere in the passageway area where you can comfortably see this point of light.

Now that you have moved out of the chamber closer to the roofbox, your field of view increases somewhat. Therefore the transference of measurement to altitude and azimuth figures will also be affected. The question is by how much and that depends on where you are within the passageway length. There are two curiously picked and dressed orthostats in the passageway on the right hand side(as you face in)

copyright C O' Kelly, Newgrange Archaeology ,art & legend P 173 ;Thames & Hudson 1982

R 21 and R 12 show similiarily etched horizontal lines across their faces and almost give a 'rib like' appearance. R 21 has 6 of these etched out depressions on its face, R 12 has 3. Possible sight lines maybe? A small table below shows the changed azimuth/altitude figures at these two positions in relation to the end chamber wall.

A Predictor to the Winter Solstice?

There is a stellar alignment that could have been viewed through the roofbox at the positions of R21 and R 12 orthostats in the passageway. That alignment obviously is the Orion Belt of 3 stars that hug the path of the ecliptic(sun's path). At the R12 position the Neolithics would have been able to see all 3 stars framed within the roofbox simultaneously. They would have been positioned on the left side of the aperture.

The operation of this phenomenon at Newgrange would predict the oncoming mid winter solstice sunrise by about 6 -8 days before it occurred. In order to know that, a series of nightly observations would have been taken at the R12 stone. The 3 stars would appear together in the roofbox for approximately only 3 - 6 minutes or so. Each night Orion's belt would rise earlier as the winter time approached. On or about Jan 14th, The Belt would rise a couple of minutes after sunset. Afterwards the Neolithics would not have seen the belt because daylight interceded. On about Jan 22nd, in their timescale midwinter would arrive. It makes for a perfect predictor. At the R21 position you would not have been able to see all 3 stars together in the roofbox only 2 at a time. Eventually as centuries evolved this event would no longer be visible through the roofbox. Now we turn full circle to the 3 photos of the kerbstones I showed you at the start. (see below)

This is the entrance stone called K1 lying outside the mound.

Here we have K67 on the northeast side of the mound

And finally K52 diametrically opposite K1.

Are you starting to see what I see. If you zero in on K52 you will see on the right hand side of the stone how sets of triple depressions are arranged around a 'boxlike' structure. Notice how the style of iconography is decidedly different from what lies on the left hand side of the stone divided by that very prominent demarkation groove. This groove is far more pronounced than what you see on K1, the entrance stone. Could K52 have been the original entrance stone which when the belt event disappeared, was promptly relegated to the diametrically opposite side to K1 to commemorate its representation? The archaeologists on the site maintain that these 3 kerbstones were carved 'in situ', in place and therefore could not have been moved to different positions. The artistic styles are different and on K67 you will notice 2 double spirals , on K1 we have 3 double spirals in a row.(Orion belt?).

There is however one snag with this phenomenon and that is in order for this event to occur it had to have taken place between the dates 4400BC and 3900BC. Even at the lower figure that's still some 600 years earlier than what the archaeologists determine to be Newgrange's construct date.UPDATE 2003. There is one Radiocarbon Age (UB 361. 4535 +/- 105BP(2585 +/- 105 bc) that when converted to a probabilistic calibrated range by the Oxcal 3.5 program gives a range between 4400 - 2600 BC(99.7% intcal98c .) This sample was discovered at the very base of the mound in turves.In fairness, it must be said that this sample had a high lab error term in years (105) See my Radiometric measures article for more on calibration programs. (O'Kelly, Newgrange, Archaeology, Art & Legend, Thames & Hudson Appendix H). Unlike in my Knowth article there is evidence of that one Carbon 14 date that coincides with that range of centuries above. Intriguingly there is mention of the front part of the passage being a free-standing structure , i.e. separate from the circular mound itself, therefore could that part of the passageway be earlier that the mound proper and have the roofbox with it? Carbon dates were taken with the caulking under RS3 behind the roofbox and they indicated a date prior to 3000BC but whose to say that such caulking was the original material or repair work (NOTE 3). But, tell me, what else could 3 hollowed depressions surrounded by a 'boxlike' structure possibly mean?

© Paul Griffin, 2000