Читать книгу Astronomy in your pocket - Vladimir Vladimirovich Bereznyakovsky - Страница 4

The oldest megalithic monument in Europe associated with astronomy is considered to be Newgrange in Ireland, near Dublin. The Newgrange dates from about 3000 BC and is a mound 13.5 meters high and 85 meters in diameter. A 19-meter tunnel leads to the burial chamber, which is based on vertically placed stone monoliths weighing from 20 to 40 tons. The walls of Newgrange are painted with strange different circles and spirals, symbolizing the rings of time. The tunnel is oriented to the Southeast-exactly where the sun rises on the day of the winter solstice. Unlike the much later Stonehenge (about 1750 BC), which is 82 megaliths weighing 5 tons each, 30 stone blocks (25 tons each) and 5 huge trilithons weighing 50 tons, the functions of Newgrange included only one astronomical operation: determining the beginning of the year, which its builders associated with December 21; while Stonehenge was an ancient astronomical Observatory, in which observations of the Sun, Moon and other planets were made. However, archaeologists and astronomers still have many questions about the technology of construction of such structures and their functionality.

The Newgrange