Information Text in Space 2

Two major changes characterise the Neolithic period – the adoption of agriculture and the increasing sedentism of occupation with families and communities living permanently in one place within their farmlands. There is a vast array of archaeological evidence associated with beliefs and rituals of the period and there appears to have been a rich diversity in the expression of spirituality.

However, there is one major theme running throughout this evidence – that of the treatment of the dead as a focus for beliefs. Whether in megalithic tombs or simple unmarked graves, the burial of the dead provided a link between the living community and the past. Communication with the spirits of the ancestors aided the community in the progress of their daily lives. 

The places of burial provided both a spiritual and territorial focus for the community. The building materials for the monuments of the period - stone, earth and wood - may have been combined to consciously imitate nature and to minimise the intrusion of these features on the landscape. The decorated stone evokes the most complex of these monuments, the more elaborate passage tombs. The decoration is most probably a combination of complex symbols and the vertical line down the middle of the stone draws the observer towards the entrance to the tomb itself. The evidence from these sites suggests that rituals associated with burial and consulting the ancestral spirits were enacted by the community in front of the entrances while others were carried out by a small elite group within the tomb. The elm tree is a symbol of the woodland landscape which these first farmers were clearing for their settlements. 

A native oak, the oldest hardwood in Ireland and the principal tree of the forest, depicts this period.  The oak, symbolising strength, was planted in 2000.  It grows opposite the grey whacke boulder which was sourced from the Roadstone Quarry in Slane Co. Meath. 

The symbols sculpted on the rock represent passage/tomb or Megalithic art in Ireland.  This refers to an ornamental tradition that flourished along the western edge of Europe during the late Stone Age and early Bronze Age.  The sculpted patterns on the rock depict art from such places as Knowth, Newgrange, and Loughcrew in Co. Meath as well as Millin Bay, Co. Down and Sess, Kilgreen, Co. Tyrone (Sculptor Ruth Eva Morrissey).