Tomb of Newgrange | National Geographic | 2:36
23.3M subscribers | 424,521 views | August 12, 2009
Posted on 07/07/2024 1:32:52 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley, County Meath in Ireland was discovered in 1699AD and became a tourist attraction long before it was excavated and restored from 1962AD to 1975AD by the late Professor Michael J. O'Kelly, Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork... According to ancient.eu, Newgrange was built long before Stonehenge, the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece and the pyramids in Giza. The construction took place about 3200BC and is part of one of the most important megalithic complexes in Europe. Two other ancient structures are also present, Knowth and Dowth as well as thirty seven burials. Newgrange is two hundred and forty nine feet across and thirty nine feet high and covers about an acre of land... The stone age peoples who built the mound seem to have been skilled artisans in a well ordered society who used stone, antler or bone for tools. The stones just for the kerb would have weighed two hundred thousand tons leading researchers to believe they were brought by boat up the River Boyne. The builders took special care to ensure the monument would remain dry by packing sand from the river and putty made from burnt soil into the joints of the roof's stones. They also cut grooves into the roof slabs to channel the water away from the structure which has remained dry to this day.
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Tomb of Newgrange | National Geographic | 2:36
23.3M subscribers | 424,521 views | August 12, 2009
The rest of the keyword, sorted:
The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha:
Still dry...amazing.
They had considerable skills to build this...wonder why there are not more or even villages and the like.
There probably were, but their modest remains either remain undiscovered, or they are under newer structures. Meath (Midh) was the smallest of the Five Fifths (Caig Caigi, something like that), and landlocked to boot. Presumably that was in deference to its ancient importance. Eventually its neighbors decided to split its territory and marched on in and pulverized it. If memory serves.
As a common practice, stone was reused, with old dwellings and walls taken apart to build new structures. An Irish stone cottage built only a hundred years ago may incorporate stones first used in habitations and walls built several thousand years ago.
The entrance to Newgrange in the late 1800s, when the mound had become largely overgrown
The entrance today...
A front view of the Neolithic Newgrange monument taken from outside the grounds.
Look at the Gallus Oratory for a smaller 12th c. look at dry stonework.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gallarusoratory.jpg
I hope that someday, they get around to excavating Old Grange.
How in the world could people have loaded and unloaded those huge stones...on boats???
You can find spiral petroglyphs all over the world. I wonder why that was such a compelling design for so many people.
They couldn’t figure out how to levitate ‘em. /rimshot
Your table is ready. It’s in that corner over there. Way over there.
That is stunning work! No mortar but mud? Incredible fitting.
Was it a hut for an oracle, like the Cave of the Cumaean Sibyl outside of Naples?
This picture from the OP link interested me so much:
Did they run out of black stone, or did they plan this shift in design? Surely they could not have brought all 200,000 tons of stone at the same time and then laid it out like a jigsaw puzzle.
The consistency of size, shape and texture of the black&white portion is amazing. Then in the white portion, you have those distinct rounded stones poking out at intervals. You have to wonder how they measured everything and kept the entire rounded perimeter a more pleasing shape than that Frank Lloyd Wright monstrosity, the Guggenheim Museum (1959) in NY City.
You can see in this photo that the rounded sections are visibly lumpy and the curve imperfect, as the interior walls are also (went there in the early 60s). Whereas this ancient tomb is beautifully shaped, with clean lines.
Also, perhaps from centuries of building farm enclosures from the stones dug up when tilling a field, the Newgrange builders knew how to angle the wall inward at the top so that the earth gathering moisture over the years would not push the wall over. I'm curious about the drainage scheme, which I can't figure out from the pictures. Maybe there is a french drain behind the large boulders at the base.
Christian times, a monks’ church.
Lovely. Just beautiful.
Mind boggling.
There’s been a lot of conservation (that is, re-laying and/or replacement of stones). Movement by watercraft is so old, it probably is the one activity that separated humans from every other living thing.
You’re right about water transport and restoration Still, the ancient builders designed the original circle and probably the pitch of the walls.
I often wonder what living was like before electricity.
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