Ireland Read Free Page B

structures in the whole world – the great tomb at Newgrange.

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The Great Irish Tombs

    O ne of the things the first people who lived on the earth must have wondered about is what happens to us when we die. Even though they were primitive people, they realised that human beings possessed a spirit or soul. They believed that this spirit or soul continued to exist after a person died, and so they had a great respect and reverence for their dead. Because of this, they built gigantic tombs in which to place the bones or ashes of their loved ones.
    One of the most magnificent tombs in Ireland, or anywhere in the world, is the great tomb at Newgrange. It’s called a passage-tomb because a passage, like a hallway, leads to a central chamber or room. The passage is built of gigantic standing stones, and is around 20 metres in length. It leads to the central chamber, which is also built of stone and has a massive stone roof. Even though it was built over 5,000 years ago, the roof is still intact and the chamber remains dry, which is a credit to the skills of those Stone Age builders. The complete structure is estimated to contain over 200,000 tonnes of stone. Can you imagine how much time, effort and hard work it must have taken to build?
    The passage and central chamber were built first and were then covered over with stones and earth to create a flat-topped hill or mound. This mound is 11 metres high and has a diameter of 85 metres. Many of the stones used in the building have carvings on them, mostly spirals, and stones in the central chamber have carvings too. We do not know what these carvings mean; maybe they represent the sun, the moon or perhaps the stars. We do know that many ancient people worshipped the sun.
    There is one more amazing testament to the skill and knowledge of the people who built the tomb. Above the entrance to the passage, there is a rectangular opening. When the tomb was discovered and excavated, this opening puzzled archaeologists. They could not figure out why it was there, or what purpose it served.
    Now we know what purpose it serves. If you visit the tomb on the morning of 21 December – the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year – the sun’s rays shine through the rectangular opening, all the way down the long passage, to illuminate the central chamber. It is the only day in the year in which this event occurs.
    The people who built Newgrange had no clocks or sophisticated scientific instruments like those we have today. Yet they were able to calculate, by observing the movement of the earth relative to the sun, when the winter solstice was. When they built their magnificent tomb they were able to calculate exactly where to place the central chamber, and how to line up the passage and that rectangular box so that the sun’s rays would light up the central chamber on the shortest day of the year. So these people were not only hard working, but extremely clever and intelligent.
    We cannot be sure why they built the tomb so that the sun’s rays light up the inner chamber. Was it to symbolise that the spirits of their loved ones buried in the chamber still lived? Or did they wish to mark the moment when the days would begin to grow longer and brighter and they could soon plant their crops again? Whatever the reason, the construction of Newgrange is an extraordinary feat of knowledge, engineering and cooperation.
    But it is not the only tomb in Ireland. There are over a thousand tombs in the country dating from those earliest times, most of them of four different designs. One is the passage-tomb like that at Newgrange. Another is the wedge tomb, and there are many of those in the south and west of Ireland. These tombs, also built of stone, are wider and taller at the front and narrower and lower at the rear. They resemble a wedge which is why they have that name.
    Another type of tomb is the portal tomb or dolmen, which resembles a leaning, three-legged stool. It consists of two giant