The well known shining quartz wall at Newgrange, after O'Kelly's restoration in the '70's.
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Other Finds All the monuments have shown traces of quartz, and many had names such as Find Cairn and Cairn Bán, which mean White Cairn. Quartz is regarded as a sacred stone by cultures all around the world and is a key component of our modern technological society today. It was known as Grian Cloch, meaning Sun Stone to the ancient Irish. The traditions which still survive in Ireland today of dashing house fronts and covering graves with quartz chippings go back a long, long way. As for my own use of quartz, the background of all the pages on the Sacred Island website is made from a section of the quartz facing from Newgrange (left).
Other items recovered in chambered cairns are chalk and stone spheres, stone pendants and bone or antler pins. There are examples of the spheres from several sites on display in the National Museum, including two mysterious artifacts found under the basin in Cairn L, Loughcrew. The chalk balls are smaller and were probably used to teach positions of the sun and moon on the horizon when held out at arms length during an astronomical ritual. I think this idea makes sense as several chalk balls were found in the chamber of Cairn G at Carrowkeel, where the roofbox demonstrates great interest in the movements of the moon along the horizon from major to minor standstill. This concept can also introduce a unit of measurement as the sun and moon both measure 0.5 degrees as they rise and set. Pendants are considered to have been hung around the neck, and Michael Herity's opus Irish Passage Graves has a photograph of a model wearing a selection of pendants from the Mound of the Hostages at Tara. Another reasonable suggestion is that the pendants were used as pendulums for dowsing, much as they are in modern healing. In a few cases larger pendants which look more like ritual axe heads have been found. The outstanding example is the Knowth Macehead which was recovered buried beside the basin in the right recess of the Eastern chamber. This beautiful artifact is made from extremely hard flint and is engraved with swirls and spirals which rival the Newgrange Entrance Stone in their excellence. Carved antler pins, sometimes with mushroom-shaped heads are found, with a particularly fine engraved example coming from Fourknocks. These may have been used as clothing fasteners, or as a drawing stylus for ground diagrams and Carrowkeel Ware decoration. Many of the finds discussed here were found among the cremations and bear burn marks from the fires. |
Quartz and granite on the roofbox lintel at Newgrange, from a pre-restoration photo.
