I was ego-surfing today, as you do, and came across an archaeological paper from the University of Cardiff that quotes several TMA’ers as sources of insight into the way Newgrange is presented to the public.
The paper is THE SIMULACRA AND SIMULATIONS OF IRISH NEOLITHIC PASSAGE TOMBS Andrew Cochrane University of Cardiff, From the book Images, Representations and Heritage Moving beyond Modern Approaches to Archaeology
Russell, Ian (Ed.) 2006, ISBN: 978-0-387-32215-5
One has to buy the article to read it, but fortunately my ego is big enough to accommodate this requirement.
Some relevant quotes are:
From the very start:
“‘Newgrange looks amazing from the outside, but is blatantly too
good to be true’(Cursuswalker 2004).
‘They had rigged a spotlight up to simulate the sun shining through
the lintel above the doorframe which was cool’ (wee_malky 2003).
‘I was not aware that it was now such a commercial venture…
Despite this it is still a tremendous place and makes you think again
about the ‘savages’ that built it’ (Fourwinds 2002).
The above quotations demonstrate the multiple ways in which some
modern people currently think about and experience the passage tombs
and their associated motifs at Knowth Site 1 and Newgrange Site 1,
Boyne Valley1, Co. Meath.”
AND
“The act of waiting in a queue can create feelings of
frustration and marginalisation (Moran 2005, 7), and may represent the
reality of simulated or prefabricated ‘seriality’ (Sartre 1976, 265).
Feelings of frustration and marginalisation are also generated by the
lengths of time that people are allocated to experience the passage tombs
and motifs (see Fourwinds 2003; Greyweather 2003; wee_malky 2003;
Cursuswalker 2004).”
AND
“The tour guides are noted by some to cause disruption and
contestation. Comments include ‘…I just wish I could spend more time
in there without an official guide’s voice as accompaniment…’
(Cursuswalker 2004); ‘…For the first time ever I had a very New Agey
[sic] tour guide while at Newgrange. Apart from making me chuckle it
did make a refreshing change to the normal archaeological banter…’
(Fourwinds 2003) and ‘…she [the guide] insisted on cracking jokes
about Neolithic people, and at one point started making drumming
sounds in order to get people to move clockwise round the chamber. I felt completely ridiculous being a part of the whole sham…’ (IronMan
2002).”
AND
“For instance, some report that
they feel that their appreciations of the sites are more considered than
others: ‘…we were probably the only people genuinely interested in the
site…’ reports IronMan (2002), while Weir describes fellow visitors as
merely being ‘…the casually curious, and the faintly-inquisitive…’
(2002).”
This is all I could find on a quick search through.
What do others think about this? Are we a valid source for such writing?
