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

by Martin Brennan

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892815098
Publisher:	Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Publication date:	10/01/1994
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	549,546
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 9.38(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Martin Brennan trained in visual communication at Pratt Institute. He has travelled extensively in Mexico where his interests in prehistoric rock inscriptions, ritual, and traditional art developed. Spending more than a decade in Ireland engaged in active research on megalithic art, he tapped into some of the earliest methods of recording numbers and the fundamental beginnings of writing, and reported these startling discoveries in his critically acclaimed The Stars and Stones, later reissued as The Stones of Time. He is also the author of Hidden Maya. He lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.

Table of Contents

The Stones of Time
Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland
Acknowledgments
Note on the Illustrations
Part I Introduction
Part II Megalithic Observatories
Part III Megalithic Art

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A pioneering work . . . we may have been given a revelation of the cosmological beliefs of our distant forefathers."

"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."

"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." 

"An exciting and fascinating book."

Editorial Reviews

"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."

author of The Roots of Civilization Alexander Marshack

"A pioneering work . . . we may have been given a revelation of the cosmological beliefs of our distant forefathers."

The Times Literary Supplement

"An exciting and fascinating book."

The Irish Times

"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."

author of Secrets of the Stones John Michell

"A pioneering work . . . we may have been given a revelation of the cosmological beliefs of our distant forefathers."

"An exciting and fascinating book."

"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."

"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." 

From the Publisher

"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

"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

"An exciting and fascinating book."

The Irish Times

"A pioneering work . . . we may have been given a revelation of the cosmological beliefs of our distant forefathers."

The Times Literary Supplement