New Grange and other incised tumuli in Ireland (Dolphin archaeologies) - Hardcover

Coffey, George

9780856420412: New Grange and other incised tumuli in Ireland (Dolphin archaeologies)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0856420417 ISBN 13: 9780856420412

Publisher: Dolphin Press, 1977

The great prehistoric chambered tomb of New Grange lies in the bend of the Boyne, north of Dublin and west of Drogheda. It is one of a group of prehistoric tombs forming one of the great cemeteries of ancient Europe. Until the end of the seventeenth century it was a huge grass-covered mound and then the chamber tomb was found. Edward Lhwyd, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was travelling in Ireland at the time and wrote in a letter dated 15 December 1699, The most remarkable curiosity we saw by the way was a stately Mount at a place called New Grange near Drogheda; having a number of huge stones pitch d on end round about it, and a single one on the top. The gentleman of the village (one Mr. Charles Campbell) observing that under the green turf this mount was wholly composed of stones, and having occasion for some, employ d his servants to carry off a considerable parcel of them; till they came at last to a very broad flat stone, rudely carved, and placed edgewise at the bottom of the mount. This they discovered to be the door of a cave, which had a long entry leading to it. Thus was discovered one of the finest megalithic monuments in the world, and one of the earliest and most remarkable examples of early architecture in western Europe. The last two and a half centuries have seen much speculation about the name and nature of the New Grange chambered mound. Edward Lhwyd himself, percipient and brilliant antiquary that he was, thought the site was pre-Roman: some place of sacrifice or burial of the ancient Irish he wrote. Others thought it Danish, or Phoenician, or Egyptian or Druidic. Sir Richard Colt Hoare, who travelled in Ireland in the early nineteenth century, was inclined to attribute this singular temple to some of the Celtic or Belgic tribes who poured in upon us from the continent of Gaul.

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