A Seafarer's Decoding of the Irish Symbols
Page 10
Seafarer’s Viewpoint
The two positioning dots indicate north/south, so Figure 8-8 needs to be rotated so that the two dots are pointed in the north-south axis. Figure 8-8 has two main spirals, indicating two harbors, a third smaller spiral, and a set of four concentric semicircles. The semicircle with four rings indicates a land-based location.
A diamond/triangle grid, after a ninety-degree rotation clockwise, is to the left, west, of the spiral locations. The diamonds have about a sun shadow angle of forty degrees relative to the east-west axis for this region, with the water to the west. A solid zigzag line on the bottom of the diamonds has an eight count, eight angles, probably indicating an eight-day trip.
Kerbstone K52 is found in the northwest part of the Newgrange Mound and may suggest that the location indicated by K52 is in the northwest part of Ireland. If this location was the Donegal Bay, then an eight-day trip south would end in Galicia, Spain. If the trip was north, the trip end would be the Orkney Islands, which is four sun-shadow degrees north of Donegal Bay.
Kerbstone K67 at Newgrange
Kerbstone K67, seen in Figure 8-9, is quite significant from a navigation viewpoint.
Figure 8-9: Newgrange K67, showing two main spiral locations, two diamonds with zigzags inside, and two positioning dots, northeast side of mound (References 41 and 7)
K67 has more detailed navigation information than any other Irish kerbstone and is found in the northeast side of the Newgrange Mound.
Seafarer’s Viewpoint
The two dots determine the north-south axis. Rotating by ninety degrees clockwise will place north as up.
Two connected spirals, one with five rings and one with six rings, connect two harbors. The total number of rings is eleven and may indicate degrees of latitude, a total of eleven. The north spiral opens to the east with land to the west. The south spiral opens to the west with land to the east.
There are two diamonds, indicating the sun-shadow latitudes. The left diamond has two concentric diamonds and has an angle of about forty-five degrees with a nine-count zigzag inside the diamond. This is a sun-shadow latitude of forty-five degrees north. The count means the number of trip days, nine, to sail from the south harbor to the north harbor. The right diamond has a left angle of about forty degrees and a right angle of about thirty degrees with a seven-count zigzag inside. The forty and thirty degrees are sun-shadow latitudes north. The count usually means the number of trip days, so it takes seven days to sail from the north harbor to the south harbor. Since the ocean currents go from north to south on the west coast of Ireland, it makes sailing sense that it would take longer to sail north than to sail south because of the Canary current. The north end of Ireland is at forty-four sun-shadow degrees north.
A grid of diamonds and triangles, usually in columns of four, surrounds the upper end of Figure 8-9. It is interesting that four shapes are in each column of the grid, whether they were triangles or diamonds. The grid also becomes narrower as one goes north, reflecting the curvature of the earth with the meridian lines getting closer. There is some indication that both the triangles and the diamonds have increased angles going north.
Relative to the two-dot, north-south axis, the south spiral is about twelve degrees to the east of the north spiral, as indicated by the small dotted line in Figure 8-9. Sailing from the east coast of Ireland at a twelve-degree angle would cross Cornwall, England, and end in Carnac, Brittany. Sailing from the west coast of Ireland, the trip would end in Galicia, Spain. The annals of Irish history, Reference 34, indicate that the trip from Spain to Ireland would take nine days. So it is most probable that in 3200 BCE, the trade route would go from the west coast of Ireland to Spain. However, since K67 was positioned at Newgrange in the upper northeast corner, the trip could have been from Ireland to Carnac, Brittany, having a sun-shadow latitude of forty degrees. The trip eventually would go to a location having a sun-shadow latitude of 30 degrees (e.g., Karnac, on the Nile River).
If the commodity was gold, the trade route would be from Carrowmore to Galicia, a distance of twelve degrees latitude, or 720 nautical miles. This would indicate that the total of eleven rings for the two spirals are degrees of latitude. Based on the Bronze Age’s (3000 to 1200 BCE) need for copper from the east coast of Ireland and Wales and tin from Cornwall, the copper trade route would go to Carnac, Brittany, and then to the Eastern Mediterranean customers. When copper came from North America, then the west coast of Ireland trade route would be used.
Summary of sun-shadow latitudes: Carrowmore is forty-four degrees; Newgrange is forty-three degrees; Carnac, Brittany, is forty degrees; Galicia, Spain, is thirty-eight degrees; Portugal is thirty-five degrees; and Karnac, Nile River, is thirty degrees north. It would seem likely that the harbors with two spirals were Northern Ireland and Northwest Spain.
K67 can also be summarized as follows:
Where am I? Harbor in Northern Ireland at a sun-shadow latitude of forty-five degrees north
Where am I going? Harbor having a sun-shadow latitude of forty degrees north
Why am I going? Gold and copper traders or copper traders
How will I get there? About five hundred nautical miles by boat
How long will it take? Seven days going south and nine days going north
Will I, or someone, return? Yes.
Roof Stone in East Recess at Newgrange
Figure 8-10 was rotated ninety degrees clockwise so that north is up and illustrates two land-based mounds, probably Newgrange and Knowth based on their shapes.
Figure 8-10: Newgrange east roof stone, showing two major location mounds (Reference 54)
The oval mound is about twenty degrees counterclockwise from the circular mound. This stone has many interesting symbols and needs much study. Only the two main symbols, the oval and the circle, will be decoded, for they illustrate the sun, moon, and Venus relationships.
Seafarer’s Viewpoint
The circular mound has eight inside circles and four surrounding concentric and connected arcs and may represent the Newgrange Mound. The round mound has five radial lines (i.e., a pentagram center where a pentagram indicates Venus for longitude). Usually, when the combination of five and eight occur, the symbolism refers to the five Venus years with the eight sun years. One of the lines points to the double circle in the center, which could indicate the lunar eclipse. Thus, the round mound is a composite of the sun, moon, and Venus—all the necessary information to determine latitude and longitude. This is the function of the Newgrange Mound. Newgrange has a rose-petal shape, with an entrance being the bottom of a rose petal, a symbol for Venus.
The oval mound with eight inside circles and a diamond inside and four surrounding concentric and connected arcs may represent the Knowth Mound. The oval mound has a diamond in the center, where a diamond represents a sun-shadow latitude. The diamond sets the east-west axis. Knowth has an east-west passageway. The east-west axis points to the circle in the next-to-the-last set of connected arc shapes. This outside circle is offset seven degrees counterclockwise from the east-west axis. The longitude for Newgrange is six degrees west from the Rose Line.
The remaining symbols in figure 8-10 relate to the spiral harbors and the multiple zigzags of the sea. The east recess roof stone at Newgrange contains critical sun, moon, and Venus counts and angles to determine the Boyne Valley’s latitude and longitude in 3200 BCE. Newgrange Mound emphasizes Venus, with the sun and moon. The Knowth Mound emphasizes the moon, with the sun and Venus.
Navigation information is coded into the stones and mound designs in the Boyne Valley. The mound designs for the Boyne Valley mounds will be explored in more detail in Chapter 9.
Three-Location Kerbstones
The three-spiral symbol is a basic symbol of Ireland, as seen in Figure 8-11, and is found in the entrance passageway of the Newgrange Mound.
Figure 8-11: Newgrange, the triple-spiral symbol in passageway with the shamrock (Reference 41)
The three-spiral centers form
a forty-/sixty-degree triangle. This symbol gets transformed into the shamrock. The origins of this symbol will be explored in this section of Chapter 8 because the three spirals represent three locations.
Passageway Stone L19 at Newgrange
Figure 8-12 shows that L19 has three major spirals with water zigzags.
Figure 8-12: Newgrange passageway stone L19, showing a major spiral location, two spiral harbor locations, one diamond with inside zigzag, and ocean zigzag symbols (Reference 6)
Between the spirals is a diamond having a seven-count zigzag. There is only one diamond as a north indicator, not two dots, so using the convention that ancient maps had east as up, Figure 8-12 needs to be rotated ninety degrees clockwise. Then, the right two spirals lead to the multizigzag water and are harbors having the spiral end headed east. The north spiral has five rings. The south spiral has eight rings. The seven-angle zigzag inside the diamond indicates a seven-day trip to the south spiral harbor.
The right two spirals are connected, indicating possibly that these harbors may be within five to eight degrees of latitude and take seven days of sailing.
The diamond represents the sun-shadow latitude between forty to forty-five degrees north for the third major spiral location. The third major spiral harbor on the left has a spiral opening to the right, east.
What really is intriguing is a single-turn spiral shown in the dotted circle. This is the Nile River Dynasty’s symbol for one hundred. This indicates a trip of one hundred days or a longitude of one hundred degrees relative to the Nile River meridian.
Collectively, these symbols could indicate a one-hundred-day trip between Ireland and North America at a latitude of forty-five sun-shadow degrees.
L19 represents major seas, three harbors, a sun-shadow latitude of between forty and forty-five degrees north, one trip time of seven days, and a symbol count for one hundred—very interesting, independent of the rotation of L19 stone.
Kerbstone K1 at entrance to Newgrange
Latitude: 53.3° N, sun-shadow latitude of forty-three degrees north.
Longitude: 6.5° W or thirty-six degrees west from the Nile River meridian.
Figure 8-13a is one of the most highly recognizable kerbstones in Ireland and is located at the entrance to the greatest mound in Ireland: the Newgrange Mound in the Boyne Valley.
Figure 8-13a: Newgrange entrance stone K1, showing multiple spirals (Reference 41)
Figure 8-13b: Newgrange entrance stone K1 (rotated ninety degrees), showing the top three spiral locations with associated diamonds
An indication for the east-west axis is the vertical line in the center of Figure 8-13a. The upper three spirals are offset (line) by about twenty degrees from this axis.
Using the ninety-degree clockwise rotation to determine north, Figure 8-13b shows the top of this kerbstone.
Seafarer’s Viewpoint
•The three spiral locations form a sixty-degree equilateral triangle. A possible east-west line is the straight line separating the top three spirals and the middle two spirals. The three-spiral location triangle is at a twenty-degree angle to the above assumed east-west line.
•Three diamonds are above the three spirals, indicating the sun-shadow latitudes for the three spiral locations. In Figure 8-13a, the angles are in the low forty degrees on the bottom, above forty-five degrees in the middle, and in the low forty degrees on the top.
•Wavy zigzags surrounding the top of Figure 8-13b suggest that water is to the north. Wavy lines to the left suggest that water is also to the west.
•Two spirals in the middle of Figure 8-13a have openings to the east.
•The other symbols are not clear enough for interpretation, based on Figure 8-13a.
It is interesting to note that the top three spirals may indicate locations in Northern Ireland and will be described in Chapter 9. These three locations have a twenty-degree rotation from the east-west axis.
From a seafarer’s perspective, the Newgrange entrance kerbstone is a map representing at least five key locations surrounded by water with sun-shadow latitudes similar to Newgrange and the island of Ireland.
Kerbstone K52 at Newgrange
Kerbstone K52 is located in the northwest corner of the Newgrange Mound and has two sides. This discussion will address the right side of Figure 8-8. A line, probably the east-west line, separates the right side from the left side, which was discussed previously. This line is at right angles with the two dots on the left side.
The three main ovals each have a shape of a cartouche. Three dots are inside each cartouche, which is the symbol for metal. For the Nile River dynasties, a cartouche signifies the name of the pharaoh or some very important identifier inside the cartouche. Thus, the oval indicates the location of the rulers of the metals.
The angular relationship between the three ovals is key for the decoding. The lower-right oval forms a forty-degree angle with the middle oval. The upper-left oval forms a thirty-degree angle with the middle oval. K52 needs to be rotated ninety degrees clockwise for the east/west axis. Figure 8-14 shows that Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth mounds, in fact, have the same thirty- and forty-degree triangle! Furthermore, thirty- and forty-degree angles are measured in the Northern Cross and Libra, le Balance, as discussed in Chapter 7. Believe it or not, this is more than coincidence.
Figure 8-14: Boyne Valley triangle for Dowth, Knowth, and Newgrange with kerbstone K52 (Reference 6, author’s annotations)
The eight-count zigzag on the bottom of the left half of K52 and the nine count zigzag at the top of the right side in Figure 8-14 could indicate trips from the suppliers (spirals) on the left side to the customers (cartouches) on the right side. The two sides probably represent supplier and customer locations of the metal in Ireland as indicated by the three dots in the cartouche.
A number of additional mounds surround the three cartouches and indicate a major site for megalithic activities.
Kerbstone K53 is found in the northwest corner of the Newgrange Mound, which may represent the northwest corner of Ireland. The metal of interest in this Donegal Bay region was gold. So the three dots (metal) could refer to the metal from the gold fields surrounding Donegal Bay from Carrowmore to Carrowkeel and then toward Derry. One thousand years later, about 2000 BCE, the Donegal Bay area was a key harbor for the copper trade routes from North America.
Multiple-Location Kerbstones
Many Irish kerbstones have multiple spirals etched on them. If the spiral represents a location, then it is obvious that a map is generated. In fact, this is the case, and the following kerbstones will prove that maps exist on the kerbstones. Of particular interest will be the spiral symbols for safe harbors. All figures in this section will be rotated ninety degrees clockwise so that north is up. Comparisons to actual Irish maps are made.
Kerbstones SW2 and SW18 at Knowth
Kerbstone SW2, Figure 8-15a, is the best example of a multispiral location map on the Irish stones.
Figure 8-15a: Newgrange SW2, showing an eight-spiral location map for Irish harbors with lines indicating the harbor entrance to the seas (Reference 7, author’s annotations)
Figure 8-15b: Map of Ireland and K1 indicating megalithic sites (Reference 61, author’s annotations)
Figure 8-15c: Knowth SW18, showing a six-spiral location map of Ireland (Reference 7, author’s annotations)
Figure 8-15b is a map of Ireland with the major megalithic sites circled. In Figure 8-15c, another map of Ireland with six spiral harbors is seen in kerbstone, SW18, found at the Knowth Mound.
Seafarer’s Viewpoint
The eight spirals in Figure 8-15a represent eight harbors surrounding Ireland. The lines are directions out to the sea and may indicate the safe entrance to the harbor.
The top right curved lines on SW2 map is the northeast coast of Ireland. The blip in the upper right of SW2 may be the southwest coast of Scotland, opposite the Belfast harbor. The semicircle at the middle right may indicate the harbor at Howth which is opposite to Holyhea
d, Wales, the location of the great Ormi copper mine. The eleven circles and crescents around the middle spiral indicate a large region of mounds, probably extending from the Boyne Valley to Galway. The left circle, with an opened crescent between the two western spirals, may be the Aran Islands. At the bottom left is a circle with a cartouche that may indicate the east/west axis.
Kerbstone SW2, when rotated ninety degrees clockwise, surely looks like a map of Ireland, having eight spiral harbors.
Kerbstone SW2, the entrance stone at Newgrange and kerbstone SW18 all indicate harbor maps of Ireland.
Kerbstone K13 at Newgrange
K13 is a map of Ireland centered on the Boyne Valley mounds. Remember, east is up, so Figure 8-16 has been rotated ninety degrees clockwise.
A seafarer’s interpretation:
The Newgrange Mound is represented by the four-circle mound, where there are detailed symbols to the southeast of Newgrange. Knowth is the three-circle mound, with a horizontal cross beside it in an east-west orientation. Dowth is a circle with an ankh beside it.
A thirty-degree angle is formed with the ankh mound as the vertex. A sixty-degree angle is formed with the cross mound as the vertex centered on the cross mound. These two angles should be thirty and forty degrees, if the map was accurate, but for the purpose of this map it was, probably, sufficient.
Figure 8-16: Newgrange K13, showing a mound map centered on the Boyne Valley mounds (References 7 and 41, author’s annotations)
The other key locations in and around the Boyne Valley are represented in the symbols in Figure 8-16. A dotted triangle connects Loughcrew, Fourknocks, and Seefin, a mining location near the Wicklow Mountains. The two-ring circle with a solid dot center to the west of Knowth is Loughcrew. The ring circle with a solid dot to the southwest is the Hill of Tara and is inside the dotted triangle. The two-ring circle to the southeast of Newgrange is Fourknocks. The six-ringed spiral, the largest symbol, is the Howth harbor above Dublin. A little dot north of the Howth harbor is the “eye of Ireland”. A three-ring circle, the second largest symbol, with a solid center dot in the north, may be the location for Knockmany.