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bawn79 wrote:
I know there is a lot of quartz lying around Knockroe in Kilkenny so if u look at the pics of that, that maybe is how they found the quartz in Newgrange. I dont think its unreasonable to suggest that the quartz would have been used as a facing, however it obviously wouldnt have been as tidy as the OPW scheme that restored it!


PS Welcome and good to have another Irish poster.

At the time of discovery it was considered that a quartz revetment would have been unstable . Quartz is often found in association with monuments e.g. kerb cairns sometimes as a pavement an Irish example is Carnagat in Tyrone .There are countless other examples from Argyll Perthshire , at Newgrange there was also a pile of deposited quartz to the right of the entrance this would not have been part of a wall due to it's shape plus there was a similar feature at Loughcrew .

apparently the irish name for quartz "grianchloch" means sun-stone. so their aparent sun worship would explain the findings of 'sun-stones' at these sites. But how and why does quartz represent the sun? sun is power, quartz being the hardest thing known to the ancient peoples then maybe thats why the granite is there too, granite being the hardest rock to hand, both symbolise strength and power. or because they wanted thier monument to last forever...

tiompan wrote:
bawn79 wrote:
I know there is a lot of quartz lying around Knockroe in Kilkenny so if u look at the pics of that, that maybe is how they found the quartz in Newgrange. I dont think its unreasonable to suggest that the quartz would have been used as a facing, however it obviously wouldnt have been as tidy as the OPW scheme that restored it!


PS Welcome and good to have another Irish poster.

At the time of discovery it was considered that a quartz revetment would have been unstable . Quartz is often found in association with monuments e.g. kerb cairns sometimes as a pavement an Irish example is Carnagat in Tyrone .There are countless other examples from Argyll Perthshire , at Newgrange there was also a pile of deposited quartz to the right of the entrance this would not have been part of a wall due to it's shape plus there was a similar feature at Loughcrew .
I didnt know that! So there is a good chance that in restoring Newgrange they could have put paving stones up as facing brick!
This is a pic I took of the quartz in Knockroe
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/55568/images/knockroe.html
Its lying in front of the eastern chamber so perhaps it was a type of paving.

But Carnagat is a court tomb and so from a 'different' culture. The meanings might be different.