The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland

Description

This revealing text describes the exciting discovery and deciphering of the 5,000-year-old stone chambers and standing stones of pre-Celtic Ireland. At midwinter sunrise, Martin Brennan and his research partner observed a beam of light shining into the central chamber at Newgrange, illuminating a series of glyphs on the back wall. They went on to observe significant solar and lunar events at other chambers and stone complexes in the Boyne Valley and Loughcrew Mountains. Through a combination of careful observation, analysis of the astronomical alignment of the sites, and personal insight into the meanings of megalithic symbols and carvings, Brennan demonstrates conclusively that the passage mounds and chambers are actually sophisticated calendar devices, and that the abstract wheels, spirals, zigzags, and wavy lines are symbols of solar and lunar timekeeping.

Martin Brennan is a New York artist who spent three years of study on prehistoric art in Mexico and a similar period in Japan. Of Irish parentage, he was drawn to Ireland and the Boyne Valley, where he spent six years studying the neolithic stone chambers and their symbolic art before formulating the groundbreaking theories set forth in this book.

"A pioneering work . . . we may have been given a revelation of the cosmological beliefs of our distant forefathers." * The Times Literary Supplement * "One of the most dramatic archaeological detective stories of our time . . . provides one exciting and awesomely beautiful drama in the continuing search for man's intellectual past." * Alexander Marshack, author of The Roots of Civilization * "The most complete record of Irish megalithic art ever published . . . calculated to overturn some fundamental doctrines of prehistoric archaeology and initiate an entirely new mode of enquiry." * John Michell, author of Secrets of the Stones * "An exciting and fascinating book." * The Irish Times *