Newgrange: a wealth of prehistoric symbols


The most beautiful passage tomb in Europe opens to the southeast, perfectly aligned with the point where the sun rises on the winter solstice.
What are its connections to astronomy? What is the meaning of the spiral carvings etched into the rock? What do the symbols of the tomb reveal about the religious beliefs of Ireland 5,000 years ago?
Next to the Boyne River in Ireland, where the waters make a broad curve, a prehistoric cemetery contains more than twenty-five passage tombs.
Known as the "Bend of the Boyne," the necropolis seems to have been constructed on the hill so that the three most beautiful tombs—Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth—could dominate the fertile valley below.
The passage tomb of Newgrange is the most fascinating prehistoric site in Ireland: it is, in fact, decorated with exceptionally crafted rock reliefs. However, one question arises: was Newgrange merely a tomb, or did it serve another purpose?

The tomb, looted and in ruins, was rediscovered in 1699, and the Welsh antiquarian Edward Lhuyd (1660–1708) was one of the first to enter. He wrote: "At first, we were forced to crawl, but as we progressed, the pillars on either side grew taller, and upon reaching the underground chamber, we found that it was about twenty feet high. In the chamber, to the right and left, there were two cells or chambers, and a third extended towards the entrance."
The corridor through which Lhuyd passed is over 18 meters long and ends in three small rooms containing three stone basins. The stones (about a hundred) that form the high corbelled roof are perfectly balanced and firmly in place despite the absence of mortar. In 5,000 years, only two of them have broken.
Such perfection in design and execution demonstrates that the builders of Newgrange, who lived around 3250 BC, possessed extraordinary skill.
The Meaning of the Carvings
The attentive visitor’s gaze is drawn to Newgrange by an abundance of beautiful rock carvings. The entrance is guarded by a stone adorned with spirals, and in the corridor, more than a dozen upright stones are decorated. Many of the roof slabs and corbel stones also feature carvings, sometimes on the upper side, hidden from view. Inside, at the base of one of the upright stones, we find the most beautiful carving of all: a triple spiral.

On the outside, many of the boundary stones are decorated, sometimes on the inner surfaces hidden from view. In addition to the spirals, other common motifs recurring at Newgrange are lozenges, zigzag lines, and circles. Yet, strangely, these do not match the symbols most commonly found in other Irish passage tombs.
So what do they mean?
Early antiquarians paid little attention to these decorations. Thomas Molyneux, an 18th-century physics professor at Trinity College Dublin, referred to them as "barbaric carvings," and many who followed him believed them to be mere ornaments. More recently, serious efforts have been made to uncover the meaning behind these decorative effects. A leading researcher in this field is Martin Brennan, whose book The Boyne Valley Vision is an analysis of the over 700 carved stones at the site. In conclusion, the author states that the majority of the designs record astronomical and cosmological observations and that Newgrange was, above all, the largest and oldest solar calendar in the world. "For the people of the Boyne Valley," writes Brennan, "the study of the sun's movements was of utmost importance. They were the most skilled sundial readers of the Neolithic."

Magnificently carved spirals decorate the enormous stone, 3.2 meters long and 1.6 meters high, located in front of the entrance to the passage tomb. The spirals may represent the labyrinthine journey of the soul to the realm of the dead. The opening made in the roof above the entrance allows the sun’s light to pass through only on the mornings of days close to the winter solstice.
The thirst for knowledge was not the only motivation for the men who built the structures of Newgrange and Stonehenge, where astronomical observations were also conducted. Perhaps they sought not only to learn more about the universe but also to establish direct and meaningful connections between it and their lives.
Newgrange is not only a solar clock or an observatory; it seems to be a symbol of the very life force itself.
In its original form, the mound covering the passage tomb was oval, and in this life-bearing "egg" penetrated a long corridor leading to a cave-like chamber, which may have symbolized the maternal womb. Inside, there is a tall pillar in the shape of a phallus, and it is possible that the two balls of gypsum found at Newgrange were male sexual symbols.
The Sun’s Rays on the Winter Solstice
Newgrange was built to benefit from the life-giving element par excellence: the sun. Above the entrance, which was originally sealed by a stone slab, there is a small cavity whose roof is adorned with carvings of double spirals and lozenges. The chamber was equipped with stone doors that could be opened and closed.

The structure is aligned so that at dawn on the winter solstice, the sun, rising, illuminates the tomb through this opening, which was specially opened on that day. The sunbeam travels along the corridor, reaching the center of the chamber.
Michael O'Kelly, a professor of archaeology at Cork University, conducted excavations at Newgrange, and on December 21, 1969, at dawn, he was inside the tomb, ready to witness what would happen. "Exactly at 9:54 British Summer Time," he wrote, "the upper edge of the solar disk appeared on the local horizon, and at 9:58, the first direct sunbeam shone through the roof opening and along the corridor, touching the front edge of the stone basin in the last chamber, brushing the floor of the chamber. As the narrow line of light expanded, becoming a 17 cm wide band sweeping across the floor, the tomb was struck by a violent burst of light, and the reflected light on the floor clearly highlighted various details of the side chambers, the terminal chamber, and the corbelled roof. At 10:04, the band of light began to shrink again, and at exactly 10:15, the direct sunbeam left the tomb."
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, the moment when the life force begins to revive the dormant earth. Perhaps, among all the carvings, it is the triple spiral in the chamber that represents what the builders of Newgrange sought to achieve with what is improperly called a "tomb": it is possible that the entering spiral symbolized the journey of the deceased, while the exiting spiral illustrated their rebirth.
It may be that, at Newgrange, the symbolic fertilization of the cosmic egg took place, ensuring the continuation of the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. The priests likely placed the cremated remains of some ancestors in the stone basins of the chambers, where they could be touched by the sunlight at midwinter, thus symbolically confirming the continuation of the lineage.

Newgrange is just one element of the Bend of the Boyne complex, although artistically it is the most accomplished. Perhaps the main tombs together form scientific records that are only now, 5,000 years later, beginning to be deciphered.
The artifacts once again demonstrate that prehistoric man was neither simple nor barbaric, but possessed knowledge and abilities that far exceed our imagination.