1973:060 - NEWGRANGE, Meath

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Meath Site name: NEWGRANGE

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number:

Author: Professor M. J. O’Kelly, Dept of Archaeology, University College, Cork

Site type: Megalithic tombs - passage tombs

Period/Dating: Multi-period

ITM: E 700629m, N 772718m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.694465, -6.476260

To the SE of the Newgrange cairn and just inside the perimeter fence of the site we had encountered in 1971 and in 1972 a considerable area within which the soil was made up of a deposit of transported turves. These were much altered by the processes of soil chemistry. A sectional profile cut just inside and parallel to the perimeter fence showed clearly that we were dealing with a layer of turves of appreciable thickness.

In 1973, our work was designed to enable us to achieve an understanding of this area. Aerial photos had suggested that the area was part of a rectangular platform-like structure which continued outward into the field beyond the perimeter fence. In pursuing this idea however, it became clear that we were dealing not with a platform structure but with a turf-mound which had covered a satellite passage-grave, now to be known as mound Z. This had been deliberately destroyed to facilitate ploughing over the area- many of the stones in the soil bear very obvious plough scores. It now seems clear that the outward extension of the “platform” is in fact yet another destroyed satellite tomb and to determine this, excavation outside the eastern perimeter of the Newgrange enclosure will be necessary. This must be done by a future excavator and if our assumptions as of now prove to be correct, Newgrange will be seen to have 4 satellites- mounds K and L on the west and mounds Z and on the east.

Eventually we were able to see that a passage-way with one side chamber had existed in this area, that it had had an orthostatic kerb to retain the edge of a covering mound 20m in diameter constructed mainly of turves, but which had had a capping of small water-rolled stones.

The destroyers had levelled the kerb either by smashing off the orthostats at ground level or by knocking them over into pits outside them dug deep enough to put the slabs below plough level. They then ploughed over the mound scattering the capping of cairn stones.

At this point, the capstones and the orthostatic structure of the passage and tomb chamber were encountered as obstructions to ploughing and a deliberate destruction of the tomb was embarked upon. The capstones were pulled off and removed or destroyed; the orthostats of the passage and chamber were pulled up and smashed into small fragments and these later were then thrown back into the stone sockets where we found them. One orthostat on the west side of the passage where the latter joined the chamber had been knocked over into a pit dug to receive it and buried.

As the orthostats of the passage and chamber were dug out and pulled up, the passage and chamber contents were severely disturbed, much of the deposit falling into the open stone-sockets to become mixed with the fragments of the orthostats as these were thrown back into the stone holes.

The chamber contained a basin stone which probably lay with its rear edge touching the back stones of the main chamber. This had been rolled over twice towards the south, i.e. towards the passage, and it came to rest near the entry to the single side chamber, its original upper surface right way up. This surface had been carefully hollowed out by chisel-work and though somewhat damaged by spalling of the worked surface, is well preserved. The floor of the main chamber had then been dug into resulting in a severe disturbance of the chamber contents.

Despite all this disturbance however, careful excavation revealed the sockets of most of the orthostats of the passage and chamber and even those that could not be exactly determined were determined sufficiently accurately that no doubt remains as to the form of the plan of the monument.

The passage, marked on each side by the sockets of the orthostats, was about 8m in length. This gave access to a chamber area about 4.5m long which was really a widening of the passage. At maximum, the chamber was 1m wide just inside the two slabs which formed its rear end. On the E. side at the point where the passage began to widen into the chamber proper, sockets for the orthostats of a single side chamber 1m wide by 1.25m deep were found. Since the stones of this element had been completely removed, it is not absolutely certain that a side chamber existed but it is difficult to interpret the evidence otherwise. On the west of Newgrange quite clear evidence was found of a single side chamber on the tomb-structure of mound K, though there, the side chamber was cut off from the main chamber by a septal slab.

The basin stone was of much interest. It was a slab of irregular shape as to outline, but it had been carefully hollowed out to the basin form, the artificer using a pointed chisel, probably of flint, and a wooden mallet. The same implements had been used to decorate the vertical edges of the slab. On the edge facing the passage and tomb entry, a rayed circle had been picked out- a sun pattern?-  this facing the SE, the point to which the entrance was orientated, an orientation the same as that of Newgrange itself as well as those of satellites K and L to the west of Newgrange. The orientation of Newgrange is to the point of rising of the sun at the local horizon on 21 December, the winter solstice. This, the last day of the old year, was evidently an important day for the builders of these tombs.

On the rear vertical edge of the basin, circle, and dot-and-circle motifs had been carved. The circles had first been carved by using a pointed chisel and mallet; they were then rubbed with a pebble to smooth out the chisel marks so as to achieve smooth if not quite polished grooves. This is a technique which was used also on K1, the Entrance Stone of Newgrange itself and on K52, the stone diametrically opposite.

Within the passage and chamber of the tomb were found a great quantity of bones, these were both human and animal. The presence of the animal bones raises the question why they were present within the tomb structure. Because of severe disturbance resulting from the deliberate destruction of the tomb, it was not possible to establish the exact stratigraphical relationship of the animal bones to the human bones. The animal bones seemed however to be more in the upper levels of the stratigraphy than in the lower levels. This suggests that the animal bones were scattered on the surface of the turf mound perhaps by the Beaker squatters and that when the tomb structure was deliberately destroyed in medieval times, the animal bones fell or were thrown into the passage and chamber of the monument.

Again, in spite of the destructive disturbance of the passage and chamber area, some of the characteristic grave goods had survived and were found during the course of the excavation. These included a number of stone “marbles” as well as clay barrel-shaped beads, bone pins and points. flint and chert implements etc. At least one fragment of one of the broken-up structural stones bears a lightly scratched zig-zag graffito. It is intended to examine closely all the fragments of the structural stones in the hope of finding other graffiti or deeply picked areas of ornament.

It had been hoped to complete the excavation of the site in 1973, but because of the complexities created by the destroyers of the site and because of the difficulties caused by adverse weather conditions, completion of the work was not achieved. A return to the site will be necessary in 1974, but it is intended that this will be the last season’s work at Newgrange. One third of the perimeter of the Newgrange cairn has been examined in the light of the general archaeological knowledge which we now possess; two thirds must be left for future excavation and study in the light of the knowledge which will by then have been accumulated.