Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:37:32.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Subjective vision and the source of Irish megalithic art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jeremy Dronfield
Jeremy Dronfield*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A timely book now in press explores the roles of drink and drugs in the lives of prehistoric Europeans. Here, an analysis of diagnostic forms in the megalithic art of Irish passage-tombs—with its spirals, lozenges and turning curves—develops the explorations of that visionary interpretation begun by Bradley in 1989.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 264 , September 1995 , pp. 539 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ApSimon, A.M. 1986. Chronological contexts for Irish megalithic tombs, Journal of Irish Archaeology 3: 5–15.Google Scholar
Bourguignon, E. 1974. Cross-cultural perspectives on the religious uses of altered states of consciousness, in Zaretsky, I.I. & Leone, M.P. (ed.), Religious movements in contemporary America: 228–43. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1989. Deaths and entrances: a contextual analysis of megalithic art, Current Anthropology 30(1): 68–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, A.E.P. 1960. Knockmany chambered cairn, Co. Tyrone, Ulster Journal of Archaeology 23: 2–8.Google Scholar
Collins, A.E.P. & Waterman, D.M. 1952. Knockmany chambered grave, Co. Tyrone, Ulster Journal of Archaeology 15: 26–30.Google Scholar
Conwell, E.A. 1864. On ancient remains, hitherto undescribed, in the County of Meath, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1st series) 9: 42–50.Google Scholar
Conwell, E.A. 1866. Examination of the ancient sepulchral cairns on the Loughcrew Hills, County of Meath, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1st series) 9: 355–79.Google Scholar
Conwell, E.A. 1872. On the identification of the ancient cemetery at Loughcrew, Co. Meath; and the discovery of the tomb of Ollamh Fodhla, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (2nd series) 1 (Literature): 72–106.Google Scholar
Conwell, E.A. 1873. Discovery of the tomb of Ollamh Fodhla. Dublin: McGlashan & Gill.Google Scholar
Cooney, G. 1990. The place of megalithic tomb cemeteries in Ireland, Antiquity 64: 741–53.Google Scholar
Deane, T.N. 1886–7. Appendix to 55th Annual Report of the Commission of Public Works in Ireland: 64.Google Scholar
Dronfield, J.C. 1991. Spiral and vortex: entoptic phenomena in Irish passage tomb art. Seminar paper presented in the Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton.Google Scholar
Dronfield, J.C. 1993. Ways of seeing, ways of telling: Irish passage tomb art, style and the universality of vision, in Lorblanchet, M. & Bahn, P. (ed.), Rock art studies: the post-stylistic era: 179–93. Oxford: Oxbow. Monograph 35.Google Scholar
Dronfield, J.C. 1994. Subjective visual phenomena in Irish passage tomb art: vision, cosmology and shamanism. Ph.D dissertation, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dronfield, J.C. Forthcoming a. The vision thing: diagnosis of endogenous derivation in ‘abstract’ arts, Current Anthropology.Google Scholar
Dronfield, J.C. Forthcoming b. Migraine, light and hallucinogens: the neurocognitive basis of Irish megalithic art, Oxford Journal of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Dronfield, J.C. Forthcoming c. Entering alternative realities: cognition, art and architecture in Irish passage tombs, Cambridge Archaeological Journal.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. 1968. Excavations at Knowth, Co. Meath, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 66C: 299–382.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. 1984. Excavations at Knowth I: smaller passage tombs, Neolithic occupation and beaker activity. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. 1986. Knowth and the passage tombs of Ireland. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. 1991. Prehistoric and early historic culture change at Brugh na Bóinne, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 91C: 105–32.Google Scholar
Frith, R.H. 1848. Memoranda of recent operations at Dowth. From the Minute Rook of the Royal Irish Academy, Antiquities 1, 1785–1850: 269–76. (Reproduced in O’Kelly & O’Kelly 1983: Appendix B.)Google Scholar
Grogan, E. 1991. Appendix: Radiocarbon dates from Brugh na Bóinne, in G. Eogan, Prehistoric and early historic culture change at Brugh na Bóinne, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 91C: 126–32.Google Scholar
Herity, M. 1974. Irish passage graves: Neolithic tomb-builders in Ireland and Britain, 2500 BC. Dublin: Irish University Press.Google Scholar
Leask, H.G. 1933. Inscribed stones recently discovered at Dowth, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 41C: 162–7.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Dowson, T.A. 1988. The signs of all times: entoptic phenomena in Upper Palaeolithic art, Current Anthropology 29(2): 201–45.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1993. On vision and power in the Neolithic: evidence from the decorated monuments, Current Anthropology 34(1): 55–65.Google Scholar
O’Kelly, C. 1978. Decorated stones, in O’Kelly, M.J. et al. (1978): 315–28.Google Scholar
O’Kelly, C. 1982. Part V: Corpus of Newgrange art, in O’Kelly, M.J. (1982): 146–85.Google Scholar
O’Kelly, M.J. 1982. Newgrange: archaeology, art and legend. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
O’Kelly, M.J., Lynch, F. & O’Kelly, C. 1978. Three passagegraves at Newgrange, Co. Meath, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 78C: 251–352.Google Scholar
O’Kelly, M.J., Cleary, R.M. & Lehane, D. 1983. Newgrange, Co. Meath, Ireland: the late Neolithic/beaker period settlement. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 190.Google Scholar
O’Kelly, M.J. & O’Kelly, C. 1983. The tumulus of Dowth, Co. Meath, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83C: 135–90.Google Scholar
O’Sullivan, M. 1986. Approaches to passage tomb art, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 116: 68–83.Google Scholar
O’Sullivan, M. 1988. Irish passage tomb art in context. Ph.D dissertation, University College, Dublin.Google Scholar
O’Sullivan, M. 1989. A stylistic revolution in the megalithic art of the Boyne Valley, Archaeology Ireland 3(4): 138–42.Google Scholar
Patton, M. 1990. On entoptic images in context: art, monuments and society in Neolithic Brittany, Current Anthropology 31(5): 554–8.Google Scholar
Patton, M. 1993. Statements in stone: monuments and society in Neolithic Brittany. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rotherham, E.C. 1895. On the excavation of a cairn on Slieve-na-Caillighe, Journal of the Boyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 25(3): 311–16.Google Scholar
Rotherham, E.C. 1897. Slieve-na-Caillighe, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 27(4): 426–7.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1987. Cups that cheered, in Waldren, W.H. & Kennard, R.C. (ed.), Bell-beakers of the west Mediterranean: 81–114. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 331.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1991. Sacred and profane substances: the ritual use of narcotics in later Neolithic Europe, in Garwood, P. et al. (ed.), Sacred and profane: proceedings of a conference on archaeology, ritual and religion: 50–64. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology. Monograph 32.Google Scholar
Stahl, P.W. 1989. Identification of hallucinatory themes in the late Neolithic art of Hungary, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 21(1): 101–12.Google Scholar
Twohig, E.S. 1981. The megalithic art of western Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar