Evidence of the Gods Read Free

grave”—although here, too, a corpse has never materialized. The place is called Newgrange, and it lies 51 kilometers northwest of Dublin or about 15 kilometers west of the town of Drogheda. There, in the county of Meath, in a loop of the river Boyne, the original inhabitants of Ireland set a grandiose memorial into the landscape. It is a technical miracle from the Stone Age. It is not simply a grave surrounded by stones to prevent animals getting at the corpse. Newgrange is a masterpiece of surveying, a lesson in astronomy, and a transport phenomenon. It was built at a time when, according to orthodox archeological opinion, Egyptian history had not yet happened, there was no pyramid on earth, and the cities of Ur, Babylon, or Knossos did not yet exist. Presumably the impressive stone circle of Stonehenge had not yet been planned when unknown astronomers built the passage grave of Newgrange.

    For thousands of years, no one paid attention to the round hill above the river Boyne, until in 1699, when the road worker Edward Lhwyd swore mightily. A boulder blocking the line of the road would not budge. When it had been half-freed from the earth, the swearing road worker noticed two engraved spirals and some rectangles on the recalcitrant block. Now everything became clear: “Another one of those damned graves.” The message reached the next pub. Newgrange had been discovered. ( Image 175 )
    Thorough excavations did not begin until the 1960s. In 1969, the lead researcher Professor Michael J. O’Kelly from Cork University discovered a right-angled artificial opening above the two monoliths at the entrance. It was only 20 centimeters wide, but that was enough for the scholar to see the light. ( Image 176 ) On the day of the winter solstice in 1969—and again one year later—O’Kelly seated himself right at the back of the vault. Here is his eye-witness account:

    Exactly at 9:45, the upper edge of the sun appeared on the horizon, and at 9:58 the first shaft of direct sunlight appeared through the small roofbox above the entrance. The beam of sunlight then lengthened along the passage into the burial chamber until the beam reached the edge of the basin stone in the niche. When the beam of light had widened into a 17-centimeter ribbon and flooded the floor of the chamber, the reflection illuminated the grave so dramatically that various details both of the side chambers and of the vaulted roof could be clearly seen. At 10:04 the ribbon of light began to narrow and precisely at 10:25 the beam of light was abruptly cut off. So for 21 minutes at sunrise on the shortest day of the year sunlight penetrates directly into the burial chamber of Newgrange. Not through the entrance but through a specially constructed narrow slit above the entrance to the passage. 3 ( Images 177 and 178 )

    As a cautious academic, Professor O’Kelly did not at the time want to give a final answer to the question whether the light show was accidental or intended. The question has meanwhile been ticked off by others. 4
Planned Lightshow
    The two Irish scientists Tom Ray and Tim O’Brian from the School of Cosmic Physics set up their instruments in the burial chamber on December 21, 1988. Precisely 4.5 minutes after sunrise,the first beam of light appeared in the rectangular opening above the entrance. After a short period, the shaft of light widened into a 34 centimeter ribbon which was however—horror of horrors!—abruptly reduced to 26 centimeters by a slightly inclined monolith. ( Image 179 ) The chamber was still illuminated, but no longer to the full width of the original beam. What had happened?
    Tom and Tim set their computers to work. In the course of the millennia, the earth’s axis performs a slow wobble, as a consequence of which “east” 5,000 years ago was not precisely where it is now. But 5,134 years ago—the computer calculations say—the full width of the sunbeam had lit up the vault through the opening in precise alignment with