Loughcrew: Form, history and meaning in an Irish megalithic landscape

At Loughcrew, in County Meath, Ireland, remains of approximately 30 megalithic chambered cairns cluster along a ridge known as Sliabh na Caillighe (the hill of the witch, or hag). The cairns may have been first constructed c. 3500-2500 BC; at least some were re-used c. AD 100. Roughly built and lacking historic documentation, such Neolithic monuments are generally considered the province of archaeology rather than of history. From the perspective of an architectural historian, this non-excavation study of the site discusses possible roles of architecture in cultures without a written language. Addressing both form and symbolism, the dissertation comprises the first comprehensive architectural and historical documentation of Loughcrew. It adds cosmological and psychological themes to the pragmatic and adaptive concerns that generally characterize archaeological studies of buildings.; The study analyzes the design of plans and siting, then compares morphological structure with thematic dualities in Irish history, myth and tradition. From the site and floor plans at least two simultaneous organizing principles may be inferred. Interior passages and chambers are arranged symmetrically, in rigidly defined modules along a powerful central axis. Outside, the circular mounds have little apparent directional differentiation. They range loosely and "naturally" along the crest of the ridge, concealing their rigorous interior order. This structural contradiction, also exhibited in graphic designs asymmetrically distributed on interior stones, implied that symbolic meanings in the landscape at Loughcrew are equally complex, even contradictory.; In addition to this architectural analysis, the study includes a diachronic and synchronic exploration of symbol and structure in some relevant Irish history, myth and tradition. Over time, Loughcrew has evoked conscious and unconscious collective memories of ancient Irish themes, particularly those centered on women, death and liminality. As does the formal structure, these thematic associations resist simplification. Rather, such memory-laden landscapes have many dimensions. Not only arenas of social and political power, they are also works of imagination that both reflect and refigure temporal, historical and poetic aspects of particular human lives.