Passage Graves

  • Passage graves were usually sited on elevated ground. They were often found in groups

    • Example: Newgrangе, Knowth and Dowth → Boyne Valley/Bru na Boinne → Co. Meath

  • Have a narrow passage leading to a central burial chamber

  • The passage walls fire made from upright slabs (standing stones) of rock and the roof by horizontal slabs

  • Some passage tombs have several burial chambers and more than one passage

  • Protected from the weather by a corbelled stone roof

  • Passage and burial chamber are usually completely covered by a circular mound of earth or small stone

Surrounded by large slabs at the base of their mounds called kerbstones and often have decorated motifs carved into them

Newgrange (Approx. 3000BC)

  • 11m high and 80m in diameter

  • Excavated from 1967-1975 by Professor Michael J O'Kelly

  • 97 kerbstones surround the base

  • Undecorated standing stones 15m out, → 12 remain out of the original 32

  • Neolithic people showed great organisational and engineering skills in the planning and construction of the tomb

  • No working animals or wheel used

  • Stone brought by boat from the coast or dragged across the countryside then rolled on logs and pulled up earthen ramps

  • Took 30-50 years to build

  • The passage at Newgrange measures 19m and the chamber 5m → 24m in total. Burial chamber is cruciform → cross shape

  • Horizontal slabs form the roof of the chamber called lintels .

  • 3 side chambers off the central chamber.

  • There are stone basins which contained the ashes and bones of the dead, in the side chambers.

  • The roof rises to 6m above the chamber floor

  • Grooves were cut into the outer roof stones to shed water → dry to this day

Stone used:

  • White quartz → Co. Wicklow

  • Kerbstones →Grey granite → Beaches of Dundalk, Co. Louth

Corbelling

  • The roof of the chamber was constructed using the corbelling technique

  • Large stabs were overlapped on top of each other in layers.

  • The roof is sloped inwards like a dome until finally a capstone sealed the structure

Entrance stone

  • Most spectacular of the kerbstones

  • Vertical dividing line in the centre

  • Anticlockwise triple spirals on the left

  • 2 clockwise double spirals to the right

    • Double spirals constructed using two separate lines

  • Concentric half circles

  • Lozenges

Kerbstone 52

  • Situated at the back of the mound → directly opposite the entrance stone

  • The entrance stone and kerbstone 52 share many similar markings

  • Stones have been dressed → hammer driven stone chisel

  • Lines and patterns are made by chip-carving → cutting into the stone with a sharp flint

Roofbox

  • Above the doorway at Newgrange there is a special opening called the roof box (rectangular opening)

  • The upper lintel stone is carved with triangles

  • The purpose of the roof box is to allow the rising sun to travel up the passage and illuminate the burial chamber for 17 minutes → 21st Dec → winter solstice.

  • Signalled the start of longer days and warmer weather