The Ship Symbol at New Grange
Another remarkable and, as far as Ireland goes, unusual
figure is found sculptured in the west recess at New Grange. It has
been interpreted by various critics as a mason's mark, a piece of
Phoenician writing, a group of numerals, and finally (and no doubt
correctly) by Mr. George Coffey as a rude representation of a ship
with men on board and uplifted sail. It is noticeable that just above
it is a small circle, forming, apparently, part of the design.
Another example occurs at Dowth.
Solar Ship (with Sail?) from New Grange,
Ireland
The significance of this marking, as we shall see, is possibly very great. It has been discovered that on certain stones in the tumulus of Locmariaker, in Brittany there occur a number of very similar figures, one of them showing the circle in much the same relative position as at New Grange. The axe, an Egyptian hieroglyph for godhead and a well-known magical emblem, is also represented on this stone. Again, in a brochure by Dr. Oscar Montelius on the rock-sculptures of Sweden we find a reproduction (also given in Du Chaillu's “Viking Age”) of a rude rock-carving showing a number of ships with men on board, and the circle quartered by a cross—unmistakably a solar emblem—just above one of them. That these ships (which, like the Irish example, are often so summarily represented as to be mere symbols which no one could identifiy as a ship were the clue not given by other and more elaborate representations) were drawn so frequently in conjunction with the solar disk merely for amusement or for a purely decorative object seems to me most [pg 73] improbable. In the days of the megalithic folk a sepulchral monument, the very focus of religious ideas, would hardly have been covered with idle and meaningless scrawls. “Man,” as Sir J. Simpson has well said, “has ever conjoined together things sacred and things sepulchral.” Nor do these scrawls, in the majority of instances, show any glimmering of a decorative intention. But if they had a symbolic intention, what is it that they symbolise?
(After Ferguson)
Solar Ship from Hallande, Sweden
