FOOTNOTES:

[i] “…The Great Mound” at Knowth, and Dowth, the “Fairy Mound of Darkness”. These are sacred “cairns” or massive stone structures that were erected about 3,700 BCE and engraved with indecipherable hieroglyphs…”

“The astronomical significance of Kerbstone 51, the “Stone of the Seven Suns”, at Dowth:

If moonlight were to shine on the back stone of the eastern passage at Knowth, it would illuminate a map of the moon itself, the world’s oldest known depiction of the lunar maria*.  The carvings are about 4800 years old. The next oldest depiction of the maria known to science is that by Leonardo da Vinci in about 1505 AD.

* Lunar maria (singular: mare, two syllables) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth’s Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for “seas”, by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas. They are less reflective than the “highlands” as a result of their iron-rich compositions, and hence appear dark to the naked eye. The maria cover about 16% of the lunar surface, mostly on the near-side visible from Earth. The few maria on the far-side are much smaller, residing mostly in very large craters where only a small amount of flooding occurred. — Reference:  Wikipedia

The mythology about Dowth speaks of a bull and seven cows, it seems likely that the site has some connection with the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, which contains the open cluster the Pleiades, otherwise known as “The Seven Sisters”. This constellation was very important around the year 3000BC, when the Boyne Valley mounds were being constructed, as it contained the Sun on the Spring Equinox, that very important moment of the year when the Sun’s path along the ecliptic crossed the celestial equator heading northwards. It is the Sun’s position among the zodiac stars at this time which determines the current ‘age’ – i.e. the “Age of Taurus”.

Another interesting phenomenon which occurs at this time is what is known to astronomers as a ‘heliacal rising’ of the Pleiades. This happens when the stars in question rise at the eastern horizon but are quickly lost in the glare of the rising sun. It is interesting to note that the Egyptians, and the Dogon tribe in Africa, (See: The Oz Factors) among others, used the same Dowth-like ‘sun-wheel’ symbols to signify a heliacal rising.

If these ‘sun-wheel’ symbols do represent the heliacal rising of the Pleiades, it tells us something very significant about the Neolithic people – they were aware of the great cycle of precession, the slow wobble of the Earth’s axis which causes the celestial pole to shift over time, resulting in the Vernal Equinox point, that place where the Sun crosses the celestial equator, moving backwards, or westwards, through the Zodiac over a huge 25,800-year period. This Vernal point moves just one degree (about two widths of the full moon) every 72 years, and spends on average 2,150 years in each of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac.”

— Reference:  http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/dowth/candlelight.html

[ii] “…In ancient Irish religion and mythology this (Tara) was the sacred place of dwelling for the “gods”…”

” Sitting on top of the King’s Seat (Forradh) of Temair is the most famous of Tara’s monuments – Ireland’s ancient coronation stone – the Lia Fail or “Stone of Destiny”, which was brought here according to mythology by the godlike people, the Tuatha Dé Danann, as one of their sacred objects. It was said to roar when touched by the rightful king of Tara.

A new theory suggests Tara was the ancient capital of the lost kingdom of Atlantis. The mythical land of Atlantis was Ireland, according to a new book.  There are a large number of monuments and earthen structures on the Hill of Tara. The earliest settlement at the site was in the Neolithic, and the Mound of the Hostages was constructed in or around 2500BC.”

— Reference:  http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/tara/