Stone Age people in Ireland built tombs which
in terms of their alignment appear to have been based on a detailed
knowledge of how the sun moves across the sky during the year.
Tombs aligned to the sun and the moon
Tombs at the archaeological site of Loughcrew in
County Meath align with the rising sun at the spring and autumn
equinoxes. The inside of the chambers are spectacularly illuminated
by a shaft of sunlight at dawn on these days, a fact which was
confirmed by Frank Prendergast of the Dublin Institute of Technology.
It suggests that settlers in the area some five to
six thousand years ago knew the yearly cycle of the sun and perhaps
centred their lives around it.
Tombs found elsewhere in Ireland have been found
to point towards the rising sun at the summer and winter solstices.
At these times, the sun reaches its most northerly
and southerly points in the sky, which can easily be observed from
any place on Earth.
The equinoxes - in late March and late September -
are not so obvious and can only be pinpointed by tracking the
passage of the sun across the entire year.
Why tomb builders wished to do this remains a
mystery but it suggests that the sun was at the heart of the ritual
and ceremonial practices of Neolithic people.