the biggest and oldest antique i have ever seen: 16 July 2008

Today we visited one of the oldest monuments built by the human race, Newgrange. The film class hopped on a bus at around 10.15 and began our bus tour. The lady on the tour was very interesting and gave us a brief history of the human race in Ireland. It really put things in perspective for me. The chat was pertinent because she was preparing us for seeing something so old that it is hard for the mind to conceptualize. Newgrange was created 1000 years before pyramids. Now to me the pyramids are about as old as I can imagine. They are one of the seven wonders of the world. And to think that Newgrange is older than that… wow. So the bus tour lady really helped me wrap my mind around exactly how long humans have been in Ireland and how old Ireland really is.

The bus made a stop at the Hills of Tara. I am not exactly sure why we stopped there because I fell asleep right after the bus tour lady gave the history of the human race in Ireland. Apparently the hills were also very old. From what I learned once I had awoken and started walking was that the hills were once the place that royalty had lived a very long time ago. I understood why they would choose this spot. The eye could see for miles and miles. It would have been quite a sight. Unfortunately it was a typical afternoon in Ireland and it was about to rain so it was cloudy. So the eye could have seen for many more miles but was unable to. Regardless, the mounds that remained from the once mighty people were there so that was impressive enough. It began to rain so we jumped back into the bus, and for me, back to sleep.

The group arrived at the Newgrange site tourist center sometime later. We grabbed some lunch and began our tour. There was a fantastic display that we checked out prior to the big tour of Newgrange. The small museum gave us a depiction of what life was like back when Newgrange was built. These people did not have much technology but they managed to create something that truly stood the test of time.

Our designated time for the tour arrived and I was rarin’ to go see some old stuff. Unfortunately there was a bus ride, an introductory speech, some warnings about going in and I was the second of two groups to go inside Newgrange. I had some time to kill so I was able to admire the actual structure of the thing. It was much larger than I had imagined. As I was walking around the enormous stone and earth circular mound I found some very interesting grooves on the side opposite of the entrance. I ran my hands along them and tried to imagine the person who created these marks thousands of years before me. I pushed my insignificance to the back of my mind and walked to the entrance, my tour was about to begin.

Walking into the low-ceilinged, narrow passage was really something special. The temple was in the shape of a crucifix with each wing meaning something different. Carvings were made on the inside of each of the wings; archeologists are not sure what they mean but a popular theory is that they stand for birth, death and rebirth. To substantiate this theory there is the ritual that occurs for five days of the year during the winter solstice. The sun shines through a hole and comes 27 meters to the center of the temple. This is said to mean life is beginning again, as the summer is not far away. I am not sure what it means but I would love to see it happen, so I signed up in a lottery so be in Newgrange for one of the five days. If I win I will certainly give the theory more thought. (664)