Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Self-Guided Tour:
On the ground floor, enter the main hall. In the center (down
four steps) are displays of prehistoric gold jewelry. To the left are the bog bodies, to the
right is the Treasury, and upstairs is the Viking world. We'll start at Ireland's beginning.
Stone Age Tools:
Glass cases hold flint and stone axeheads and arrowheads (7,000
B.C.
).Ireland'sfirst inhabitants—hunters and fishers whocame from Scotland—used these
tools. These early people also left behind standing stones (dolmens) and passage tombs.
Reconstructed Passage Tomb:
At the corner of the room, you'll see a typical tomb
circa 3,000
B.C.
—amound-shaped,heavystonestructure, coveredwithsmaller rocks,with
a passage leading into a central burial chamber where the deceased's ashes were interred.
This is a modest tomb; the vast passage tombs at Newgrange and Knowth (see
here
) are
20 times bigger.
The Hill of Tara:
The famous passage-tomb burial site at Tara, known as the
Mound of the Hostages, was used for more than 1,500 years as a place to inter human re-
mains. The cases in this side gallery display some of the many exceptional Neolithic and
Bronze Age finds uncovered at the site.
