{"it":{"id":"NEW-NEW","kind":"site","sub":"British Isles","name":"Newgrange (Brú na Bóinne)","place":"Ireland","lat":53.695,"lon":-6.476,"date":"c. 3200 BCE","mat":"Greywacke, quartz, granite cobbles","nfacts":27,"tags":["Britain"],"sum":"For about 17 minutes around the winter solstice sunrise, a beam of light enters a box above Newgrange's entrance and travels 19 m down the passage to the inner chamber (verified effect; duration single source). The sun sits only about 1 to 2° above the horizon when it happens (T. P. Ray, Nature 1989).\n\nNewgrange, in Ireland's Boyne Valley, was built around 3200 BCE from greywacke, with a facade of quartz and granite cobbles.","why":"A Neolithic passage tomb in Ireland whose roof-box admits the winter solstice sunrise.","src":[267],"nsrc":5,"yt":"What does a tomb designed to catch one sunrise a year tell you about its makers?","rel":["STO-HEN","EGY-001"],"hook":"On 21 December 1969 a professor sat in Newgrange's chamber and watched the sun come in for 17 minutes."},"S":{"267":["Wikipedia: Newgrange","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"]},"rec":{"id":"NEW-NEW","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"mound","a":"diameter","v":"85","u":"m","o":"85 m","unc":"","by":"Hensey","yr":"2015","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0521"},{"f":"mound","a":"height","v":"12","u":"m","o":"12 m","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0522"},{"f":"mound","a":"area covered","v":"4500","u":"m2","o":"4500 m2","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0523"},{"f":"mound","a":"mass of material","v":"~200000","u":"t","o":"~200000 t","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0524"},{"f":"passage","a":"length","v":"19","u":"m","o":"19 m","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0525"},{"f":"passage orthostats","a":"number of stones","v":"43 (22 W, 21 E)","u":"count","o":"43 (22 W, 21 E) count","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0526"},{"f":"passage orthostats","a":"height (avg)","v":"1.5","u":"m","o":"1.5 m","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0527"},{"f":"entrance stone","a":"dimensions","v":"~3 x 1.2","u":"m","o":"~3 x 1.2 m","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0528"},{"f":"entrance stone","a":"mass","v":"~5","u":"t","o":"~5 t","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0529"},{"f":"great circle","a":"number of stones surviving","v":"12 of possible 38","u":"count","o":"12 of possible 38 count","unc":"","by":"O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0530"},{"f":"quartz facade","a":"height","v":"up to 3","u":"m","o":"up to 3 m","unc":"","by":"Fogarty in O'Kelly","yr":"1982","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0531"},{"f":"kerb","a":"number of stones (slabs total)","v":"547","u":"count","o":"547 count","unc":"","by":"Tilley","yr":"2008","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0532"},{"f":"roof-box solstice beam","a":"solar altitude","v":"~1.3","u":"deg","o":"~1.3 deg","unc":"","by":"Ray","yr":"1989","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0533"},{"f":"solstice illumination","a":"duration","v":"~17","u":"min","o":"~17 min","unc":"","by":"Prendergast","yr":"2024","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0534"},{"f":"passage tomb","a":"dating","v":"c. 3100 BC","u":"","o":"c. 3100 BC ","unc":"","by":"Lynch","yr":"2014","m":"radiocarbon (summarised)","c":"Lynch 2014","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M0535"},{"f":"passage axis","a":"orientation","v":"winter-solstice sunrise (roof-box)","u":"","o":"winter-solstice sunrise (roof-box) ","unc":"","by":"Ray","yr":"1989","m":"in-situ observation/survey","c":"Ray 1989 Nature 337","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0536"},{"f":"The site covers","a":"area","v":"780","u":"ha","o":"The site covers 780 ha (1,927 acres) and contains around 40 passage graves, as well as other prehistoric sites and later features.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brú_na_Bóinne&oldid=1373017259","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1373017259 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2253"},{"f":"The site covers 780 ha","a":"area","v":"1927","u":"acres","o":"The site covers 780 ha (1,927 acres) and contains around 40 passage graves, as well as other prehistoric sites and later features.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brú_na_Bóinne&oldid=1373017259","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1373017259 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2254"},{"f":"chamber is sited having a diameter of over","a":"diameter","v":"100","u":"metres","o":"Newgrange is the central mound of the Boyne Valley passage grave cemetery, the circular cairn in which the cruciform burial chamber is sited having a diameter of over 100 metres.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brú_na_Bóinne&oldid=1373017259","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1373017259 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2255"},{"f":"September 2023 the state bought Dowth Hall and","a":"area","v":"552","u":"acres","o":"REF8 REF9 In September 2023 the state bought Dowth Hall and 552 acres of surrounding land.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brú_na_Bóinne&oldid=1373017259","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1373017259 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2256"},{"f":"mound","a":"material mass","v":"~200,000","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Newgrange","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Newgrange","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3519"},{"f":"mound","a":"width / height","v":"85 / 12","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Newgrange","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Newgrange","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3520"},{"f":"mound","a":"area","v":"4,500","u":"m2","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Newgrange","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Newgrange","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3521"},{"f":"passage","a":"length","v":"19","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Newgrange","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Newgrange","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3522"},{"f":"roofbox","a":"function","v":"winter-solstice sunrise enters chamber","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Newgrange","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Newgrange","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3523"},{"f":"construction","a":"date","v":"c.3100 BC","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Newgrange","yr":"2026","m":"derived","c":"Wikipedia Newgrange","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M3524"},{"f":"basin stone","a":"dims / mass","v":"~3 x 1.2 m; ~5 t","u":"m/t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Newgrange","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Newgrange","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3525"}],"lab":[{"k":"Lab date","lab":"GrN-5463","m":"14C (Groningen)","mat":"charcoal","v":"4415 ± 40 BP","cal":"GrN-5463: 5276-4863 cal BP (IntCal20, XRONOS)","ctx":"burnt-soil caulking under cross-lintel, passage/chamber junction","link":"O'Kelly: \"should date construction\"","weak":"charcoal in caulking may be older than the roof (old wood); only 4-5 dates","b":"S","url":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100 ; https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00107690","n":""},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"GrN-5462","m":"14C (Groningen)","mat":"charcoal","v":"4500 ± 45 BP","cal":"GrN-5463: 5276-4863 cal BP (IntCal20, XRONOS)","ctx":"roof-slab caulking (O'Kelly 1969)","link":"construction caulking","weak":"charcoal in caulking may be older than the roof (old wood); only 4-5 dates","b":"S","url":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100 ; https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00107690","n":""},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"GrN-5462-C","m":"14C (Groningen)","mat":"charcoal","v":"4452 ± 45 BP","cal":"GrN-5463: 5276-4863 cal BP (IntCal20, XRONOS)","ctx":"same sample as GrN-5462, second fraction","link":"construction caulking","weak":"charcoal in caulking may be older than the roof (old wood); only 4-5 dates","b":"S","url":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100 ; https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00107690","n":""},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"GrN-9057","m":"14C (Groningen)","mat":"moss","v":"4480 ± 60 BP","cal":"GrN-5463: 5276-4863 cal BP (IntCal20, XRONOS)","ctx":"turf beneath the mound","link":"pre-mound surface: terminus post quem","weak":"charcoal in caulking may be older than the roof (old wood); only 4-5 dates","b":"S","url":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100 ; https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00107690","n":""},{"k":"Materials","mat":"kerb/orthostats","m":"petrological provenance (summarised)","v":"mostly greywacke; from ~5 km or Clogherhead ~20 km","by":"Phillips et al.; Tilley 2001/2008","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"facade","m":"petrological provenance (summarised)","v":"white quartz from Wicklow ~50 km","by":"Phillips et al.; Tilley 2001/2008","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"facade cobbles","m":"petrological provenance (summarised)","v":"granodiorite from Mourne Mtns ~50 km; gabbro Cooley Mtns; siltstone Carlingford Lough","by":"Phillips et al.; Tilley 2001/2008","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"cairn","m":"petrological provenance (summarised)","v":"river pebbles from Boyne terraces","by":"Phillips et al.; Tilley 2001/2008","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"}],"eng":[],"ori":[{"k":"solar","v":"Winter-solstice sunrise enters roofbox to chamber","by":"O'Kelly excavations; many observers","b":"V","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange","n":"","t":"INTERPRETATION"}],"gaps":[{"a":"largest_block","r":"not found in free sources reached"},{"a":"slope_face_angle","r":"no published face/slope angle in sources reached (often n/a for non-pyramidal sites)"},{"a":"wall_batter","r":"no published batter survey in free sources"},{"a":"corner_precision","r":"no published precision survey in free sources"},{"a":"levelness","r":"no published levelling survey in free sources"},{"a":"mortar","r":"dry-stone construction or no binder analysis in free sources"},{"a":"tool_marks","r":"no tool-mark study in free sources reached"},{"a":"volume_labor","r":"no volume/labour estimate in sources opened"},{"a":"construction_phases","r":"no phase sequence in sources opened"},{"a":"lab_date_material","r":"no lab date with dated material in sources opened"},{"a":"hydrology_acoustics","r":"no published hydrology/acoustic measurement in sources opened"},{"a":"magnetic_radiation","r":"no published magnetic/radiation survey found (searched site name + magnetometry/radiation; Wikipedia, Google Scholar snippets)"},{"a":"metals_clamps","r":"no metal/clamp evidence reported in sources opened"},{"a":"excavation_history","r":"no excavation history row yet"},{"a":"artifacts_found","r":"no finds row yet"}],"dat":[{"v":"Passage tomb built c. 3200-3100 BC","lab":"LR: GrN-5462/5463 caulking charcoal; GrN-9057 turf","chain":"charcoal in roof caulking was placed at construction, so its age ~ construction","weak":"old wood in caulking; only 4 dates (Groningen 1960s-70s)","alt":"none lab-based on record","b":"S","url":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100"}],"aa":[],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"c. 3200 BCE","dm":"Radiocarbon","lab":"YES: 4 lab_results rows (organic samples; none date stone working directly)","weak":"date applies to the sampled organic/associated material, not the stone; association with construction is assumed","unesco":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/659","dens":"STUB"},"co":{"lat":"53.6947","lon":"-6.4755","src":"Wikidata P625 + UNESCO WHC list XML (agree ≤0.05°)","agree":"DISAGREE: primary 53.69470,-6.47550 vs OSM 53.69331,-6.45019","b":"V","note":"OSM top hit 0.025 deg away; likely a different feature/town match - kept primary value (prior VERIFIED from wave2 retained)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/99180830"},"src":[{"id":"S0560","t":"O'Kelly 1982 Newgrange; Ray 1989 Nature; Prendergast 2024 (via Wikipedia)","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"},{"id":"S0272","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brú_na_Bóinne&oldid=1373017259"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia Newgrange","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Newgrange&oldid=1381331331"},{"id":null,"t":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100 ; https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00107690","u":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100 ; https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00107690"},{"id":null,"t":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100","u":"https://xronos.ch/sites/12100"},{"id":"VNEW-NEW-6","t":"World Heritage Ireland 2024: Winter Solstice Phenomenon at Newgrange, research report (PDF)","u":"https://www.worldheritageireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1314_World-Heritage-Unit_Winter-Solstice-Research-Report_Final.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Brú na Bóinne - Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/659/"}],"sum":"In an old Irish tale, the god called the Dagda wants Boann, goddess of the River Boyne, who is married to another. He sends her husband away on a one-day errand and, to hide what follows, casts a spell that makes \"the sun stand still,\" so the husband never notices the time passing. Boann bears a son, Aengus, the young son. Later Aengus asks for the great mound on the Boyne for \"a day and night,\" and then keeps it for ever, since all time is made of days and nights. It has been suggested that the story is a memory of something real: a beam of sunlight entering a stone womb at the moment in midwinter when the sun's path seems to stand still, and a young sun reborn to take over from the old one. The mound in the story is Newgrange.\n\nNewgrange is a passage tomb on the north bank of the River Boyne in Ireland, a stone corridor leading to a burial chamber under a great mound. With Knowth and Dowth it forms the core of Brú na Bóinne, which UNESCO calls Europe's largest concentration of prehistoric megalithic art, with about forty smaller passage graves around the three great mounds in a World Heritage area of 780 hectares; UNESCO's pages place it 50 kilometres north of Dublin in one place and about 40 in another. The mound is about 85 metres across and 12 metres high, covers some 4,500 square metres, and holds about 200,000 tonnes of earth and stone in alternating layers. A passage 19 metres long, lined by 43 upright stones averaging 1.5 metres high, climbs the sloping ground to a cross-shaped chamber under a corbelled roof of overlapping slabs. A kerb of great stones edges the mound, and in front of the entrance lies a carved stone about 3 by 1.2 metres, weighing some 5 tonnes, carved with triskele-like spirals.\n\nThe stones came from far and wide. Most of the slabs are greywacke, from about 5 or 20 kilometres away. The white quartz cobbles of the façade came from the Wicklow Mountains, about 50 kilometres to the south; dark rounded granodiorite cobbles from the Mourne Mountains, about 50 kilometres to the north; gabbro from the Cooley Mountains; banded siltstone from the shore of Carlingford Lough. The granite basins inside the chambers also came from the Mournes. Someone organised the gathering and carrying of stone from mountains on both sides of the valley to build one face that would shine.\n\nCharcoal pressed into the burnt-soil caulking of the roof slabs, dated at Groningen, places the building around 3200 to 3100 BC, in the Middle Neolithic; the 2024 report uses 3200 BC, other summaries about 3100. The date assumes the charcoal was fresh when the builders used it; old wood would make the tomb look older than it is. Burnt and unburnt human bones lay in the passage and chamber, some of them cremated, with possible grave goods or offerings. Recent DNA work found that a skull bone in the most elaborate recess belonged to a man whose parents were first-degree relatives, possibly brother and sister. Some read that as the mark of an elite who married among themselves, and Newgrange as a royal tomb. The archaeologist Alasdair Whittle cautions that social ranks in the Neolithic were often short-lived, and suggests an elite may have risen briefly in response to a crisis.\n\nThen there is the light. Above the entrance is a second opening, the roof-box. On 21 December 1969 Professor Michael O'Kelly, who excavated the tomb between 1962 and 1975, sat inside. At 8.54 GMT the top edge of the sun appeared over the horizon. Four minutes later \"the first pencil of direct sunlight\" came through the roof-box and down the passage into the chamber, lighting the carvings, and at 9.15 it was cut off. \"For 17 minutes, therefore, at sunrise on the shortest day of the year, direct sunlight can enter Newgrange.\" He had first come at the solstice of 1967 to test the idea. The sun is only about one or two degrees above the horizon when it happens, about 1.3 degrees by the physicist Tom Ray's measurement. Early writers had predicted the alignment from a plan before anyone saw it.\n\nWas it designed? In the 1970s the surveyor Jon Patrick measured the roof-box and its horizon and concluded the alignment was of low precision; the astronomer Douglas Heggie, judging on statistical grounds, doubted it proved intent. In the late 1980s Ray resurveyed the tomb, found one of Patrick's limits a degree too high, and judged the roof-box very probably built for the alignment. A 2024 research report by Ireland's World Heritage Unit, modelling the sky of 3200 BC, says Ray's work significantly increased the probability that it was intentional. Because the tilt of the Earth's axis has shifted slightly since then, Ray found the beam, which now stops at the rear edge of the chamber, could once have reached the back stone of the end recess. A single quartz block was found in place in the roof-box during excavation, and the report suggests the light could have been controlled by setting blocks of quartz in and out. In Irish, quartz is grianchloch, \"sun stone.\"\n\nThe weather complicates the picture. Cameras watched 37 mornings around the 2020 solstice, and the sun was visible on 12; over the same period in 2021, on only two. Direct light can enter for about 20 days either side of the solstice, giving more chances in a cloudy year. O'Kelly's reconstruction of the white façade is itself controversial, and how the front once looked is argued over.\n\nWhat remains open is the purpose behind the precision. Nobody knows what rites were held when the light came in, who was allowed in to see it, or whether the builders saw the beam as a promise, a sign or a test. Yet the pieces fit together strangely well: a society that drew stone from mountains fifty kilometres away, perhaps ruled for a time by a closely inbred elite, built a chamber where light enters only when the sun's path stands still, and medieval Irish texts still told of a god who stopped the sun and a son born to inherit the house.\n\nWho did the builders expect to see the light, in a land where cloud so often hides the dawn, and how long did the memory of what they knew about the sky outlast the people who first set it in stone?","qs":["Most solstice mornings in Ireland are cloudy. Who did the builders expect to see the light, and how often?","How would you prove an alignment was meant?","Why build a window above the door?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Irelands_history.jpg/1280px-Irelands_history.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irelands_history.jpg","title":"Irelands history.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Tjp finn","cap":"A front view of the Newgrange monument taken from outside the grounds"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/2013_Solstice_Newgrange.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2013_Solstice_Newgrange.jpg","title":"2013 Solstice Newgrange.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Dentp","cap":"Newgrange Passage Tomb"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Chiselled_granite_basin_at_Newgrange.jpg/1280px-Chiselled_granite_basin_at_Newgrange.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chiselled_granite_basin_at_Newgrange.jpg","title":"Chiselled granite basin at Newgrange.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"O'Dea","cap":"A chiselled granite basin in the east recess or side-chamber at Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Corbelled_ceiling_of_Newgrange_passage_tomb.jpg/1280px-Corbelled_ceiling_of_Newgrange_passage_tomb.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corbelled_ceiling_of_Newgrange_passage_tomb.jpg","title":"Corbelled ceiling of Newgrange passage tomb.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"O'Dea","cap":"The corbelled vault of the Newgrange passage tomb chamber with a central capstone six metres above the floor."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/County_Meath_-_Newgrange_-_20180709160029.jpg/1280px-County_Meath_-_Newgrange_-_20180709160029.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:County_Meath_-_Newgrange_-_20180709160029.jpg","title":"County Meath - Newgrange - 20180709160029.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Ruhrfisch","cap":"County Meath, Newgrange."}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"c. 3100","u":"BC","h":"Older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids","s":[22]},{"v":"Solstice","h":"Winter-solstice sunrise shines through a “roofbox” and floods the inner chamber","s":[22]},{"v":"200,000","u":"t","h":"Weight of the river pebbles that make up its cairn, carried up from the Boyne","s":[22]},{"v":"c. 3200 BCE","h":"Dated to","s":[22]}],"hs":{"22":["Wikipedia: Newgrange (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/NEW-NEW.webp","w":1280,"h":960,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Irelands_history.jpg/1280px-Irelands_history.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}