Firmly grounded in the structure and engravings of Newgrange, this

book offers several revolutionary insights into both its science and its

religious faith.

Forty carved motifs are explained as emblems of site features which

the builders provided to ensure an afterlife for the dead, including the

nine carved rungs in the passage, the "leak" that delivered water to the

chamber bowl and slab, the two round sockets in the rim of the bowl, the

stone marbles found in the chamber, and the starry outviews originally

possible through the chamber vault. The author argues that some of

Michael O'Kelly's discoveries suggest Newgrange may have been retooled

when precession displaced the targets of those outviews.

The book explores the builders' competent astronomical and

mathematical skills, and shows how these were combined with an afterlife

faith capable of engaging both mind and spirit. A radical analysis of

five related motifs exposes unexpectedly sophisticated characteristics

of the Newgrangemen's mode of expression.

The rich cluster of afterlife agencies identifiable at Newgrange,

unique as a fingerprint, can also be recognized in certain myths,

fairytales, religious traditions, and superstitious observances. Mrs.

Garnett shows how these resources may shed light on the heretofore

almost completely unknown afterlife faith and practice of these

stone-age people.