The Boyne Valley vision

by Martin Brennan, D.A. MacManus

The Boyne Valley Vision by Martin Brennan. Published by The Dolmen Press in 1980. In this book Martin Brennan presents an entirely new interpretation of these monuments, one which challenges the conclusions of earlier studies and offers conclusive evidence which radically changes our knowledge of megalithic culture in Ireland. The Boyne Valley Vision is a personal step-by-step account of a quest that has resulted in some of the most astounding and profound archaeological decipherments of our time. Martin Brennan demonstrates in his text and in some ninety drawings and figures from his pen the vision of the universe transmitted by the artists of megalithic Ireland in their designs carved in naked rock. He shows that the ideas expressed by these artists are more substantial than the stones on which they are incised. His study exposes for the first time an entire cosmology, a vocabulary of symbols, the sundials, the calendar and other scientific tools of the oldest culture known to us. Although The Boyne Valley Vision is not strictly an archaeological work, it proposes some of the most far-reaching archaeological discoveries of our time. As a study of the earliest manifestations of art in Ireland, Martin Brennan's book provides new insights into these enigmatic designs and points the way to an understanding which was never possible before, an understanding of a message that justifies the wonder with which past ages have regarded them. Our view of Ireland's past can never remain the same.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how many times I have read this book since I discovered it during the 1990s. The author is an artist and he creates illustrations reproducing the icons in the New Grange burial mounds in Ireland. He argues for an interpretation of the symbols.

I have no idea if his interpretation is correct or not. Regardless, the illustrations are beautiful, it is a pleasurable read, and interests me.