Sligo Field Club Lecture - The Art, Astronomy and Mythology of the Irish Neolithic - March 31 2023

Описание: This is a re-recording of the Sligo Field Club Lecture - The Art, Astronomy and Mythology of the Irish Neolithic - which I gave in Sligo IT on March 31 2023. Due to technical problems on the night I did not manage to record the talk, so I re-recorded a more detailed version today.

The talk discusses the Irish passage-grave builders, believed to have arrived in the north-west of Ireland by around 4,150 BCE, after migrating from Brittany where sea levels were rising rapidly. The seafaring neolithic people brought a new religion based around their female deity, as well as agriculture and the practice of monument building to house the remains of their dead. The development of astronomical alignments at Carrowmore, Carrowkeel, Moytura and Loughcrew are discussed before moving on to the three huge mounds of Dowth, Knowth and Newgrange in the Boyne Valley.

I look at the concepts of dismembering and de-fleshing of bodies as part of a rebirth or resurrection ritual, and discuss how the longest neolithic passages in Europe may have been constructed to reenact Inanna's or the Cailleach's journey to and return from the Land of the Dead.

I also look at the fascinating suggestions by Paul Griffin and Robin Edgar, that the neolithic people were recording total solar eclipses in their engraved monuments at Loughcrew, where Martin Brennan and Jack Roberts discovered two important alignments, and at both Dowth and Knowth. The last image, a wonderful capture of the winter solstice alignment at Newgrange is by Ken Williams, an expert on Irish megalithic art and engravings.

Ken's website: - https://www.shadowsandstone.com/

Links to pages on my website with more detail on these topics can be found below:

Magheraboy causewayed enclosure - 4,150 BCE:-
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/coolr...

Carrowmore - 3,750 - 3,000 BCE: -
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/carro...

Listoghil - 4,000 - 3,550 - 3,300 BCE: -
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/carro...

Carrowkeel - 3,600 - 2,900 BCE: -
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/carro...

Loughcrew - Cairn T - circa 3,340 BCE: -
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/lough...

Loughcrew - Cairn L - circa 3,340 BCE: -
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/lough...

The Boyne Valley Monuments - Dowth, Knowth and Newgrange - 3,100 - 2,900 BCE: -
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/boyne...