Local tradition in County Kerry, Ireland, tells of the destruction of an ancient tomb in the 19th century. But now, a folklorist has found the lost, wedge-shaped, aligned tomb with the Winter Solstice axis.
When Bronze Age tombs were lost and found
With its majestic scenery, majestic mountains and rugged coastline, County Kerry is a favorite with visitors to Ireland’s Atlantic coast. Now, a folklorist has rediscovered the Bronze Age tomb known as Altóir na Gréine, the “Altar of the Sun,” which was always believed to have been destroyed in the 19th century.
In 1838, Lady Georgiana Chatterton, an English aristocrat and traveler, visited the site and sketched the monument. She described the site as “a curious ancient relic” and suggested it was used for sacrifices to the Sun. And in 1852, the antiquarian and librarian Richard Hitchcock reported that at that time the tomb was destroyed and its stones were plundered for construction purposes.
While a burial was recorded near Baile an Fheirtéaraigh in the 19th century, the exact location of the monument has been lost. But now, the burial tomb dating back about 4,000 years has returned.
Sketch drawing of Lady Chatterton’s wedge-shaped tomb in 1838. (Public domain)
Local taboos are challenging
As part of a recent archaeological mapping project, local folklorist Billy Mag Fhloinn first identified the stones at the top of a hill, which he then associated with the described hill. described in Lady Chatterton’s sketch. Fhloinn’s main research identified many large vertical pillars and a rock, challenging local tradition that the tomb was completely destroyed in the mid-19th century.
Mag Fhloinn created a 3D scan which he sent to the National Monuments Authority in Dublin. Archaeologist Caimin O’Brien confirmed that these stones represent about a quarter of the original Bronze Age cuneiform tombs, dating from 2500 BC to 2000 BC. Folklorist Mag Fhloinn suggests that the “taboo” surrounding the destruction of such graves is related to 19th-century beliefs “in bad luck or disaster associated with their demise.”
Build the sun
Altóir na Gréine, like other wedge-shaped tombs in Ireland, were often located on high ground and they aligned with specific times in the annual cycle of the sun. In this case, the “Altar of the Sun” is aligned from southeast to northwest, indicating that it is oriented along the axis of sunrise at the winter solstice and sunset at the summer solstice.
Archaeologist Caimin O’Brien told RTÉ that the rediscovered Bronze Age tomb will now form part of a “deep mapping project” being carried out by the US Sacred Heart University. This involved scanning ancient structures and creating 3D models of burial mounds on the Dingle Peninsula, on the Atlantic coast of southwest Ireland.
Tony Bergin, president of the Kerry Historical and Archaeological Society, found similarities between the rediscovered Irish grave and similar structures in Brittany, France. For example, the contemporary Allées Couvertes tomb in Brittany, which is associated with ancient copper miners.
Stone symbol of population expansion
Ireland’s blue sheaths and ragged coastline contain intricate arrangements of Neolithic passage graves, such as the Boyne Valley Passage Tombs complex and the Creevykeel Court Tombs. These funerary monuments were built more than 5,000 years ago, making them older than Stonehenge in England and some of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
About 4,000 years ago, a new architectural style emerged, called “wedge tombs,” and these “stone galleries” were narrower and shorter at the east end. Usually covered by an earthen mound, this particular style of building flourished for around 500 years and archaeologists found they turned towards the Sun at key stages in its annual cycle .
Wedge-shaped tombs appeared at the dawn of the Bronze Age, during a period of rapid population growth, when new technologies and methods of copper farming were being developed. According to an article in RoaringWaterJournal.com, Irish archaeologists speculate that the wedge-shaped tomb marked the emergence of new continental technologies, styles of pottery making and metalworking, combined with the construction of Ireland’s existing indigenous chamber mausoleums.
