1972:0027 - NEWGRANGE, Meath

Work at Newgrange during 1972 was concentrated on three objectives :
1 A new survey of the mound, kerb and great circle;
2 Study of the turf platform at the east edge of the site;
3 Further examination of the layer of turves which protrudes from under the edge of the mound on the north side.

Survey
An extremely detailed survey of the area was carried out by students of Bolton St. College of Technology under the direction of Mr. John Patrick, Lecturer in Surveying. This confirmed that the flattened S. front and bulging N. curve were truly present; and excavation has shown that the bulge in the kerb at K52 was an original feature. The orientation of the passage and chamber was also checked. A photogrammetric aerial survey was commissioned, from which a contour map of the cemetery will be prepared.

Turf Platform at E edge of Site
This feature was mentioned in my report for 1971. Aerial photographs show what appears to be a rectangular platform of considerable size running outward from the eastern margin of the Newgrange enclosure into the adjacent field. In 1971 it became clear that the platform existed in fact and that it was made up of layers of turves and some transported boulder clay. Its western edge was marked by a setting of orthostats– all of which had been smashed off below ground level to facilitate tillage perhaps in the last century, though there is no evidence of the exact date of this smashing. The area was certainly ploughed over many times–  plough scratches are visible everywhere on stones. In 1971, Mr. Michael Walsh, BA, MSc, of An Foras Taluntais, studied the sectional profile of the platform and confirmed from the soil chemistry and soil structure that the platform is composed of turves.

Work on the feature was continued in 1972. The layers of turf were slowly removed– the whole stratum was 30 to 40cm thick. Under the stratum, but only just beginning to appear at the end of the season, were mixtures of human and animal bone, some burnt, some not, burnt areas or hearths from which flints and some sherds of pottery had begun to come. It is not yet clear what the structure is and it is hoped to finalise the matter in 1973.

Turves under the Cairn on the North side
The presence of these turves has been known since the first cutting through the slip was made in 1966. The edge of the layer of turves is about 4 to 5m outside the kerb. At this point it is just a few centimeters thick. Under the kerb, the turves are about 40cm thick and the very large and heavy kerbstones are set into the turves. Inside the kerb, the layer thickens rapidly and at the innermost point reached so far, 35 layers of turf can be counted. From experiments and studies made, the turves at this point may have been 31/2m thick when first deposited. Compression has now reduced them to about 11/2m thick. New samples were taken at the innermost point for palaeobotanical study in the Institute for Pre and Protohistoric Sciences in the University of Amsterdam. And it is to be hoped that information of additional interest will result.

One wonders if it would have been possible to set up the kerbstones on or into such a layer of turves if they were fresh and unconsolidated at the time. K52 must weigh about 8 to 10 tons and the stones on each side cannot weigh much less. To put these stones into place on a soft and moving bed seems a very difficult operation and one wonders if the turves were not already old and consolidated at the time of the building of the kerb. In other words, are they the mound of an earlier structure which was completely hidden when the great cairn of Newgrange was thrown up? It may never be possible to determine this matter.

Three C14 dates have now been obtained from charcoals from the Beaker settlement. They are as follows:
1935 + 35 BC (GrN – 6342);

2040 + 40 BC (GrN – 6343);

2100 + 40 BC (GrN – 6344).

Clearly identifiable Beaker pottery was directly associated with the charcoals from which these dates were obtained.