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


Other Internal/External Iconography


As you make your way into Newgrange interior you will come across various orthostats and roof slabs that are decorated on visible and invisible sides. Also 4 stone basins made of granite were discovered in side recesses and at the end chamber wall. The east recess has 2 basins one on top of the other and the end chamber cist was discovered smashed into many pieces. Here I show the East recess basin cist with 2 grooved depressions in its surface.


east recess top basin granite cist

Various cremated remains were discovered scattered about the chamber and some inside the basins, obviously offerings to the Gods.

As you get closer to the chamber proper very beautifully designed 3 double spirals awaits you at C10 location which is halfway up that chamber orthostat at a cordoned off area.(see below)

c10 three double spirals

More spirals are in abundance on the underside of the roof slab at the East recess together with unusual motifs surrounding them. (picture below)


roof slab iconography east recess

And finally at the heart of the chamber as you look above you will find the technically efficient corbelled roof with its top cap stone at the apex 6 metres(19ft.) above the floor level.This feature was, until recently, successful in drawing off precipitation for thousands of years that would seep into the mound through inclement weather conditions. A series of chiselled water grooves made sure the water runoff disappeared away from the chamber itself. (see roof below).


corbelled roof of chamber interior

Once outside the mound as you travel around it various motifs and engravings (mostly faint) are in evidence on some of the 97 kerbstones. I have some drawingsK2 - K17andK50 - K97 that show the iconography and would draw your attention to K97 to the immediate right of the entrance stone K1(as you look into the mound). This kerbstone has a series of 3 separated spirals that are almost equidistant and at similiar angles to the 3 star Belt of Orion constellation that I mentioned earlier on. This is unmistakable evidence of the Irish Neolithics and their interest in celestial signatures.


I hope to add more information to this article at a later date


Newgrange front elevation after restoration


Preliminary Findings

  1. 2 points within the passageway allowed for the observation of Orion's Belt in Neolithic times (R21 and R12).
  2. 2 external mound sites A & B measure out the extent of the 'Neoltithic times' Winter Solstice predictor delimiters.
  3. K52 may have been an original entrance stone now deposed to the back of the mound.
  4. K97 shows Orion's Belt stars as celestial signatures.
  5. An alignment from K1 to GC -2 shows evidence of fixing the Equinoxes in Neolithic times


This article was hacked out to the internet in AD 2000



© Paul Griffin, 2000