A Seafarer's Decoding of the Irish Symbols

by Donald McMahon

  The five-curved zigzag going north is a trip to the dotted circle mound, having three circles and a solid center dot. The nine-angled zigzag going south is a trip to the solid dots (mines). Many solid cup marks indicate mining activity. Remember that three solid dots in a line is a symbol for metal. If this is a map of the region identified above, then the dots are close to the gold and copper mines in the Wicklow Mountains. The bottom-left set of cup marks may indicate the mines in southwest Ireland (e.g., Ross Island mines).

  The right-hand, eastern contour curve resembles the eastern coast of Ireland. Walking the beaches near Portmarnock gave me a beautiful view of the offshore island called the “eye of Ireland.” The “eye” is directly north of the Howth harbor and surely would give the seafarer an excellent point of reference for measuring angles from a north-south axis.

  K13 is a map of the major megalithic sites in the Boyne Valley and the surrounding mounds, primarily south and to the north of the Boyne Valley. K13 surely stretches the imagination, but the actual Irish map seen in Figure 8-16 confirms the map interpretation for K13. Chapter 9 will clearly confirm my interpretation.

  Figure 8-17 shows the Newgrange kerbstones, K13, K52, K67, K1 surrounding the Newgrange Mound (Reference 6)

  All of the symbols, angles, and counts are consistent with a navigation theme.

  Conclusions

  In Chapter 8, I decoded twenty of the significant Irish kerbstones from a seafaring perspective. Many of the kerbstones represent one-location kerbstones, two-location kerbstones, three-location kerbstones, and finally, multiple-location kerbstones. The key seafaring aspects to the decoding were location, location, and location. It is clear that the symbols have been carved with excruciating consistency. The decoding scheme generates no inconsistencies by applying the scheme to the other Irish kerbstones. No matter who the invaders were, they were all seafarers who understood these symbols.

  The spirals represented harbors with diamonds for latitudes and counting for trip times. The key example is K67 from Newgrange. The multispiral stones formed maps of Ireland. The key examples were SW2 and the rooftop stone from Newgrange. Calendars based on the sun, moon, and Venus cycles were carved into the stones.

  However, the decoding has just begun. The actual mound structure, passageway designs, and the mound orientations contain much information for the seafarer. In Chapter 9, I will decode the mound design architecture.

  • • •

  Chapter 9:

  Irish Mounds Decoded

  The Irish mounds were designed as strategic places for many functions. They are like the per ankhs of the Nile Valley. A per ankh is a house of life, with activities related to astronomy, healing, and storage. A dry, secure location was needed for the storage of grains and trading commodities. From a seafaring perspective, a place to discuss the next trip was needed. Also, the people needed a place to create and store information on the kerbstones about the suppliers and customers. The mounds became a repository of kerbstones with symbols (Chapter 8). The locations of the mounds were in the fertile regions of Ireland, where the Irish royalty lived in their gardens of Eden. Information on the growing seasons was critical. The typical trading trip was for three years, one sailing season, one planting season, and then a return sailing trip to the customers. So mounds were built in Ireland.

  One of the great experiences of my life has been visiting these mounds, many times, to touch the stones and to sense the spirits of the past and the purposes of the mounds and stones.

  Chapter 8 decoded the Irish kerbstones from a seafaring perspective, emphasizing the locations of the harbors on the trade route as well as other locations. Calendar and other timing events are coded into the Irish kerbstones. It is informative to decode the Irish mounds from a seafaring perspective, where the focus is the locations of the supplier, the storage facility, and the customer. The timing of critical events is also coded into the mound designs. The objective of Chapter 9 is to discuss the mound architecture and observe how seafaring information was built into the Irish mounds.

  Seafarer’s Perspective

  Where am I? Ireland

  Where am I going? Supplier, customer

  Why am I going? Gold and copper in secret locations

  How will I get there? Navigation by Boat

  How long will it take? Depends on the next trading location

  Will I, or someone, return? Yes, many times.

  A secure, safe, and dry storage location is needed—a mound.

  Mounds of Interest

  Ten mound locations will be discussed in this chapter: Carrowmore, Carrowkeel, Knocknarea, Dowth, Knowth, Newgrange, the Hill of Tara, Loughcrew, Fourknocks, and Knockmany. Carrowmore and Carrowkeel were selected because of their location in the gold area of northwest Ireland, and they have the oldest stone structures, c. 4000 BCE. Comparisons then can be made to the well-developed mounds in the Boyne Valley of Dowth, Knowth, and Newgrange, c. 3200 BCE. Mounds at Knocknarea, Hill of Tara, Loughcrew, and Fourknocks are also described to show their association with the megalithic development of the Irish cultures. Finally, the mound at Knockmany will be presented, showing a connection with the great Barnenez Mound in Brittany. There is a progression of mound designs from the simple to the more involved. But first, there needs to be a general description of the Irish mounds.

  Mound Architecture

  A mound’s architecture has many components and considerations:

  •The shape of the mound has both horizontal and vertical viewpoints. There is the shape of the original stone circle, circle, oval, heart, rose petal, etc. Is the mound built on a hill or on flat ground? The entrance to the passageway has angles, channels, outer openings, and entrance openings with different widths.

  •Combined passageway/chamber design: ring cross, ankh, chi/rho, rho, pillar shape, wide to narrow.

  •Passageway design: straight line, zigzags, window box, sill box, level horizon, elevated.

  •Design of head chamber: square, rectangle, pentagram, hexagram, trapezoid.

  •Design of side chambers: square, rectangle, pentagram, hexagram, trapezoid.

  •Ceiling designs in the passageway, main chamber, and the side chambers: flat, arched, chimney, opening at top, level.

  •Inside mound materials: stones, altars, basins.

  •Outside mound wall materials: kerbstones, quartz.

  •Mound levels: one-tiered, two-tiered, three-tiered.

  •Mounds with positioning stone or stones: one, two.

  •Multiple mounds, configurations: stand-alone, two or more in straight line, three in a triangle.

  By calculating the angles of the above mound configurations, relative to a grid system, latitude and longitude can be determined. Ireland is a land of measurement: counting and angles, latitudes, longitudes, and timing issues (i.e., when to plant and when to sail).

  Carrowmore, 4000 BCE

  Latitude: 54.3° N, sun-shadow latitude, forty-four degrees north

  Longitude: 8.52° W

  Carrowmore has the largest collection of megalithic stones in Ireland. The configurations, circles, dolmens, and cairns are distributed over two square miles in the shadow of Knocknarea. Carrowmore’s stone structures were on a low ridge versus on a hill. The stones, some dating back to 5000 BCE, lack etched symbols. Nearly one hundred ancient monuments were originally present in this location. The majority of stone configurations appear to lack serious design, probably because of the age and disappearance of key kerbing stones. Walking among these undisturbed stones in a tranquil setting overseen by the great mound on top of Knocknarea was awe-inspiring. We had a sense of being connected to a culture that was “cultured” as they constructed their community of enduring stone structures.

  The major attraction for the Carrowmore region was gold. Alluvial or quartz-bearing gold was prevalent in the northwest area of Ireland. The Carrowmore region had key harbors in Sligo and Donegal. The major trade routes emanating from this location went north toward the Orkney Islands
and the Scandinavian customers, went south for the gold customers, and went west to and from North America.

  One major stone mound is seen in Figure 9-1.

  Figure 9-1: Carrowmore: The “Giant’s Tomb” mound with a rho passageway (Reference 61)

  Figure 9-2: Carrowmore, stone configuration dating to c. 5500 BCE

  Irish lore indicates that this mound was a “Giant’s Tomb,” when the land was inhabited by giants. It is difficult to determine the original orientation of this mound. From the passageway, the right arm of the chamber is larger than the left arm of the chamber. Some alignment was initially designed, possibly the Samhain (October 31) sunrise or the winter solstice on December 21. Figure 9-2 shows a stone configuration dating to c. 5500 BCE.

  The roots of the name Carrowmore are CR, MOR, and RE. The symbols can represent chi rho, where CR is the phonetic symbol representing latitude (chi or X) and longitude (rho); the sea is represented by MOR and the god RE, where RE is a variation of a symbol for this god.

  Carrowkeel, 3000 BCE

  Latitude: 54.05° N

  Longitude: 8.38° W

  Carrowkeel’s megalithic location has one of the oldest chamber mounds in the world, as seen in Figure 9-3a. It was a challenge just to find this location nestled in the mountains above Lake Arrow. The trek, accompanied by sheep, avoiding the gullies from rifts going in odd directions and with no well-marked trails circling the hilly terrain, finally led to three stone mounds, all with passageways settled from age and with horizontal roof boxes. Crawling through the passageways with flashlight in hand was a memorable experience. The light revealed the design structures for the passageway, the bottom of the roof-box passageways, and the interior chambers. The passageways and chambers of these three mounds were as they were designed and constructed five thousand years ago. We had a sense of discovering something significant and close to a community of structures seen in Figure 9-3b.

  Figure 9-3b shows the foundation for 153 stone structures, indicating a well-developed community. This was also in the region of the ancient gold mining in Ireland.

  Figure 9-3a: Chambered Mound N at Carrowkeel

  Figure 9-3b: Foundations for 153 hut structures at Carrowkeel (Reference 61)

  Figure 9-3c: Carrowkeel schematic of mound G, showing level roof box and Northern Cross passageway (Reference 61)

  This site was where the mythical Battle of Moytura took place between the Tuatha Dé Danaan and the ancient gods of Ireland, the Fir Bolgs. The fight continued until it was realized there was a common heritage. The Fir Bolgs were the “men of bags” or the “belly-bag” people. What was in the bags?

  Seafarer’s Viewpoint

  Figure 9-3c shows the key feature of this mound, the roof box, for the winter solstice. A level horizon is needed to determine accurate latitudes, so when building a mound on a hill, a leveling architecture is a key design feature.

  Figure 9-3c also shows the Northern Cross passageway design having the following angles: a thirty-degree angle from the entrance to each side chamber and a forty-degree angle from the top to each side chamber. The cross has the same angles as the Northern Cross, seen in Figure 7-10. The main passageway has a six-degree counterclockwise angle from the north.

  The right chamber, when going from the main chamber, has a seventy-two-degree angle between the two side stones. Anytime seventy-two degrees is measured, the designer is refering to Venus. There is a fourteen-degree angle connecting the side chambers, relative to north. The Northern Cross, Figure 7-10, has a thirteen-degree angle between the right and left sides of the cross. The chambers can be used for storage. Close to the Carrowkeel location are caves, which were also used for storage.

  My first impression when I saw Carrowkeel was that the three center mounds were the belt of Orion.

  Figure 9-4: Satellite view of Carrowkeel mounds and rifts (Google Maps)

  The dotted lines in Figure 9-4 indicate a possible alignment with the constellation Cassiopeia, Figure 6-7, or the wing of Cygnus, the Swan, in the Northern Cross, Figure 7-10. There is a thirty degree angle for the top mound from the bottom and middle mounds.

  Independent of the mound configurations, it is important to note the rifts surrounding these mounds in Figure 9-4. These rifts occur not from erosion, but from some type of mining activity.

  The Google map of Carrowkeel and Figure 9-4b indicate rifts, which could have been the site for mining the gold veins. Then the mound design at Carrowkeel begins to resemble the slurry crushing mills seen in Chapter 4. Maybe the window-box design was not only a level horizon for latitude calculations but was also a way to collect water for many reasons, including metal refining.

  The roots of the name Carrowkeel are CR, RWK, and EL. The symbols can represent chi rho, where CR is the phonetic symbol representing latitude (chi or X) and longitude (the ankh without the crossbar), the ark, where RWK is the phonetic sound for the ark or rock, and EL, a symbol for the god Eloha.

  Knocknarea, 3200 BCE

  Latitude: 54.25°N

  Longitude: 8.57°W

  Knocknarea overlooks Carrowmore, Figure 9-5a.

  Figure 9-5a: Knocknarea: Maeve Cairn on mountaintop

  Figure 9-5b: Satellite view of Knocknarea showing a triangle of mounds

  Figure 9-5c and d: Cup marks indicating the north-south axis

  On this mountaintop is the great Maeve Cairn, and it is a hike for the ambitious that we undertook. Knocknarea oversees the Sligo/Donegal region, where Carrowmore and Carrowkeel are located.

  The ocean and bay views from Knocknarea are spectacular and surely represented a key strategic observation point for all sailing expeditions involving the northwest of Ireland. I had a sense that great mysteries are hidden in these stones, for there are other stone structures surrounding the great Maeve mound. The satellite view is quite interesting, for it shows A forty-/thirty-degree triangle also connects Knocknarea, Knockmany, and the “eye” of Ireland.

  The Maeve mound on the top has yet to be excavated but should contain significant information concerning the trading history of the northwest of Ireland. In general, the mounds on Knocknarea are lined up north to south, and they may have been constructed to face east overlooking Carrowmore. Figure 9-5d shows the left cup marks that may relate to the north-south axis and the right cup marks at a forty five degree angle from the left cup marks that just happens to be about the sun-shadow latitude for Knocknarea of forty-four degrees. There are two huge stones set diametrically opposite each other at the base of the mound. This site is strategic, for it overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and the associated trade routes and gold fields surrounding Donegal Bay.

  The roots of Knocknarea are Knock, which means a hill, and Ra, God, or “hill of the kings” or “hill of the moon” (see Figure 9-6).

  Figure 9-6: Knocknarea: The moon rising over the mountain contour (Reference 61)

  However, the roots of Knocknarea are also NK, OCK, and Rea, where R is the sun god, OCK may be the ark, and NK is ankh. A meaning could be a storage location for the sun god.

  Boyne Valley

  Latitude: 53.7° N

  Longitude: 6.5° W

  The three main prehistoric sites of the Boyne Valley are Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth, which are located on the north bank of the River Boyne, fifty kilometers north of Dublin. This is one of Europe’s largest and most important concentrations of prehistoric megalithic carvings. The various monuments, particularly the great passage tombs, represent important seafaring-related developments over a considerable length of time.

  The World Heritage site of the Bend of the Boyne takes its name from the fact that it is defined on the south, east, and west sides by the River Boyne. Dowth, Knowth, and Newgrange dominate the Boyne Valley and are surrounded by about forty satellite passage mounds.

  Dowth Mound, 3200 BCE

  The Dowth Mound, Figure 9-7a, (Reference 41), was probably built before the Knowth and Newgrange Mounds. In Figure 9-7a, note the entrance stone with three large cup marks in a forty-/thir
ty-degree triangle.

  Figure 9-7b: Dowth, top-down schematic of mound with two passageways (Reference 61)

  Figure 9-7b shows a top-down view of the Dowth Mound with the two passageways with the details of the north and south passageways as seen in Figure 9-8 (Reference 61).

  Figure 9-8a: Dowth north, ring-cross passageway with right-side chambers

  Figure 9-8b: Dowth south, ankh passageway with right-side chamber (author’s annotations)

  Seafarer’s Viewpoint

  The north passageway of the Dowth Mound has a ring-cross design (Figure 9-8a), with several additional side chambers to the right. The north passageway axis has an angle of twenty degrees counterclockwise from the east-west axis given that north is correct in Figure 9-7b. The crossbar is at thirty-degree angles from the centering stone on the left in the passageway to the two side chambers. The crossbar forms forty-degree angles from the two side chambers to the top chamber. The ring-cross design is the shape of the Northern Cross, with the left chamber at a twelve-degree offset from the right-hand chamber.

  The floor stone with the hollow in the right extended chamber forms a forty degree angle with the east/west axis. A thirty-/sixty-degree triangle is formed by connecting the three major floor stones in the chambers in Figure 9-8a. The triangles based on these three stones are similar angles as the Summer (navigation) Triangle seen in Figure 7-10.

  Note that the Isle of Meroe has a sun-shadow latitude of twenty degrees north.

  The south passageway has an ankh design (see Figure 9-8b), with only one side chamber on the right. The passageway axis has an angle of forty degrees counterclockwise from the east-west axis. The crossbar is angled thirty degrees from the centering stone on the left of the passageway to the right-side chamber (dotted line). There is a a thirty-/forty-degree triangle formed by connecting the ends of the side chamber and the side of the main chamber to the top of the main chamber.