 Introduction Megalithic monuments are an important part of the Irish landscape. Their impressive stature and the incredible ingenuity of these monuments make it hard not to take notice of them. They were built in an age without tractors or forklifts; all the labour put in was completely human-power. The Megalithic monuments in Ireland are not alone in the world. Megalithic tombs were built in various parts of western Europe from as early as the fifth millennium B.C. Passage Tombs or related monuments are a widespread phenomenon found mainly in southern Scandinavia, western France, Iberia, Britain, and Ireland. No one is sure about the origin of the Megalithic builders; who they were, where they originated from, their social structure, etcetera. Various scholars have assumed a Breton origin for them, and it has been argued that the first Irish tombs were built by a group of people, at least a several hundred of them, who sailed from the Gulf of Moribhan in southern Brittany to the mouth of the Boyne and then spread westward to Loughcrew and Sligo. The status of monuments are also under debate. The burials are found with incredible grave deposits and an elaborate burial mode. The tombs themselves are impressive and the incredible work put into the construction as well as the art that decorates the walls must have taken an incredible amount of human time and labour. This has led scholars to see the Neolithic Megalithic builders as an elite society with a religious fervour focused on a 'Cult of the Dead'. This religion itself is believed to have spanned a much longer period and the building of Megalithic tombs was the work of various sects. The different types of Megalithic tombs appear to attest to this, each believed to be a separate manifestation of the religion. The religion was spread throughout Britain and western Europe, each sect developing its own response to the Cult of the Dead. It has been long argued that the Megalithic was disseminated, by invasions or immigrations or some other kind of mass-movements of peoples. However, it now seems more likely that the idea of the Cult of the Dead was brought to Ireland by a slow spread of ideas which took root when the time was ripe. For Ireland, this time arrived around 3,000 B.C. Farming, both pastorialism and agriculture, had been developing since 4,000 B.C. and by 3,000 B.C., a well-fed settled population had evolved in Ireland which now had the reserves of wealth in food efficient enough to enable them to look beyond the day to day survival and to adopt the spreading cult of the new religion. As various regional manifestations of a Cult of the Dead, which spread among early agricultural communities, no large scale movements of people would need to be involved. Small scale movements may have taken place and may be quite undetectable in the archaeological record. The farming communities of the time did not exist in a social and economic vacuum, but were no doubt a part of an intricate network of interrelationships which involved the continuing movement of goods and materials. The reasons for the building of Megalithic tombs and why different tomb types were apparently in contemporary use, is not fully understood. The infusion of a new Megalith people, or just the idea of Megaliths, into the already established culture in Ireland, or the passage of time, or the different environments of the monuments may explain the differences between the different types of tombs in Ireland. The differences in tomb types, burial rites and goods, and the ornamentation of the Megalithic Tombs, particularly in the Passage Graves, show the influence of other Megalithic building societies and also the Irish adoptations and adaptations to this culture.
Megalithic Burials Some similarities between Irish and Scottish tombs and a general similarity in the plain pottery found are in the tombs in both areas. The clear parallel between the Irish-Scottish connection and its analogue in lowland Britain is implied in the common use of east-orientated trapezoid Burial Galleries and, frequently, subsidiary chambers in both areas. In the scattered distribution of these burials near light, upland soils; in the general 'Western' appearance of the pottery; in the organization of a common method of production; and distribution of polished stone axeheads and in the general kite or leaf-shape of the projectile-heads used for hunting, both communities reveal their common ancestry (Herity and Eogan, 54). In almost every one of its features, the culture of the Irish Primary Neolithic peasants can be compared to Childe's Western Zone (Herity and Eogan, 54). Their pottery is western: the 'leathery' appearance noted by Childe us commonly produced in Ireland by burnishing. Their preference is for the upland territories. In their industries, a version of the leaf arrowhead is the normal projectile type. A continental factory has been discovered in Brittany. Burials are made communally in long cairns, many of features of which can be derived from northwest France. Unlike the builders of other Megalith tombs, these people grouped their tombs in cemeteries, their first insular Irish one clustered tightly around imposing central tombs set in commanding positions in the valley of the Boyne River. As their culture became more firmly rooted in the country, vigorous moves inland brought groups of these Boyne peoples, first to the Loughcrew cemetery, then to Carrowkeel, and finally to the Atlantic coast at Knocknarea above Sligo. In these cemeteries, the distinctive Boyne features of nuclear cemetery and mountain-top siting are realized in conjunction with pronounced insular traits: a peculiar art idiom, a preference for cruciform tombs and a sophisticated series of grave goods. A series of symbols combined in complex designs including some abstracted human figures is, at its best, effectively and even dramatically placed within the tombs and reveals their Atlantic ancestry. The assemblage of tomb plans, art motifs, and ornaments further indicates the ties which these Irish Sea tombs and their builders have with these on the Gulf of Muribhan in the south of Brittany (Herity and Eogan, 56). The figure of 1,200 Megaliths known at present for Ireland may seem excessively large. However, it must be remembered that as far as our present knowledge goes, they were being built over a span of at least a millennium and a half - almost as long a period as the present duration of the Christian period. Even if one were to bring up the number of monuments to about 1,500 to allow for all those destroyed, and if these are spread over the time postulated, the average building rate is still very low. It has been shown that apart from a few exceptions, the number of individuals interred in each tomb was small; in several of the Court Tombs, for example, only a single youth was found. This leads to the speculation that the structures themselves were built to house 'special' people or that the structures themselves fulfilled the main requirement and that the burials were of a token nature (O'Kelly, 1997, 124). In either case, the Megaliths cannot have served the burial needs of the entire community. They must have represented some element unrelated to the practical requirements of the majority; whether this was to house a particular person or family or to symbolize temporal and/or spiritual powers, no one knows for sure (O'Kelly, 1997, 124).
Types of Burials There are many variant forms of Megalithic burials, but it is possible to classify them into four main types: Court Tombs (formerly known as Court Cairns), Portal Tombs (formerly known as Portal Dolmens), Passage Tombs (formerly known as Passage Graves), and Wedge Tombs (formerly known as Wedge-shaped gallery graves).
 Court Tombs
A count has placed the number of this class at 329, all of them, except for about half a dozen, lie in the northern third of Ireland (O'Kelly, 1997, 85). Within that area, there are strong local concentrations, particularly heavy ones in the coastal regions of Mayo, Sligo, and Donegal and a lesser concentration if Down and Louth. These two areas are connected by a strong spread if tombs across the midlands of Ulster. Related tombs are found in Scotland, the Isle of Man and on both sides of the Severn estuary in Britain. The name Court Tomb arises from its prominent feature, the court-like area from which access is gained to the tomb chamber. The tomb averages about 30 metres in length, 15 metres wide at the front and about 7 metres at the rear. A revetment of stones standing on end usually marks the long straight sides. The tomb is placed axially within the cairn and, in about seventy percent of the known cases, has two compartments divided from each other by jamb stones or by jamb and sill stones. Some three- and four-chambered galleries are known. The corbel technique was used in the roofs. Slabs were laid flat, one on the other, each oversailing the one beneath until the space could be closed by one or two further stones. Entry into the tomb chamber was from the unroofed court, a feature defined by standing stone. The court can be oval or circular and fully enclosed with a narrow entry. In others, the court is U-shaped and semi-circular forms are the commonest. Circular or full courts, as they are called, are found in the western part of the distribution. The pots found in the excavated tombs are round-bottomed bowls with or without shoulders, some decorated some plain. Coarsely made flat-bottomed bucket-shaped vessels also occur. The characteristic flints are leaf- and lozenge-shaped arrowheads and hollow scrapers. All of these items have can also be found in the Neolithic habitation sites. Javelin heads are also found; over a dozen are listed from the excavated sites. Polished axes of stone have also been found. It is unfortunate that none of the radiocarbon dates obtained so far for Court Tombs show a consistent pattern that relates strictly to the construction of the monuments. There are no exact Continental prototypes for the Court Tombs or for their near relatives in Scotland. They are best regarded as an insular development evolved through the fusing of diverse traditions which constituted the way of life in the northern part of Ireland and neighbouring Scotland in the Neolithic Period.
Portal Tombs
The latest figure for the number of Portal Tombs is 163 (O'Kelly, 1997, 92). Like the Court Cairns, the majority is in the northern half of the country. The Portal Tomb has a straight-sided chamber, often narrowing towards the rear. The entrance is marked by a pair of tall portal stones set inside set inside capstone of enormous size, poised high over the entrance, resting on the portal stones at the front and sloping downward towards the rear where it rests on the back-stone of the chamber. The portal tomb at Kilmogue, Co Kilkenny, like most Portal Tombs it favours a low-lying situation, and as in many similar examples, beside a stream. The single chamber measures about 3 metres by 2 metres and its side- and end-stones are about 1.3 metres high. The evidence from the twenty or so Portal Tombs that have been excavated suggests that the burial rite was cremation. The finds (from thirteen tombs only) consist in the main of similar type of pottery to that from Ballykeel together with leaf-shaped arrowheads and hollow scrapers. The similarity in several respects between the Court Cairns and the Portal Tombs in the northern third of Ireland - the presence of long cairns and also the similarity between the tomb assemblages - the question has frequently been debated as to whether one is not derived from the other. The problem is compounded by the absence of firm radiocarbon dates for either type of tomb. Very similar tombs are known in Wales and Cornwall, and perhaps also in the Costwold-Severn region. The 'Whispering Knights' in Oxfordshire is considered to be a Portal Tomb.
Passage Tombs
About 2000 B.C., the Passage Tomb builders presumably arrived in the Irish Sea from Brittany, and built their first tombs on the Menai Straits between Angelsey and the mainland of Wales, and on the opposite shore of the Irish Sea in Ireland. Tombs of the Passage family are found in three concentrations on the Continent of Europe: in Iberia, Brittany, and Scandinavia. In general, the tombs are grouped fairly close together in cemeteries, which presumably represent large agglomerations of people. In all these areas, they are found relatively close to the sea. In contrast with other Megalith people, their builders show a high regard for the adornment of the person and for the ornamentation of the walls or furniture of the tomb. An unique assemblage of material is found within the Passage Tombs with the cremated remains of the dead: heavily decorated pottery called 'Carrowkeel' ware, personal ornaments, and curious stone and chalk balls. Noteworthy is the complete exclusion of all other stone implements, weapons, and tools from the sacred ambience of the burial-place. The Passage Tomb people built many of their tombs in the orthodox megalithic style - rectangular or round burial chambers approached by long passages and covered with round mounds. In Angelsey and on the east coast of Ireland as far north as Antrim, they observed Breton norms, sitting their tombs on the promontories overlooking sheltered water, setting their chambers asymmetrically to the passages, and edging their tumuli with drystone walls. Ystum Cegid Isaf in Caernarvon, Bryn Celli Ddu in Angelsey, Knocklea on the Dublin coast and Carnanmore on an Antrim promontory are all orthodox, simple Atlantic Passage Tombs. They also introduced transeptal forms like the tomb of Barclodiad y Gawres above Trecastle Bay in Angelsey. The art on which is executed in a style resembling that of the simple tomb of Le Petit Mont which stands in the promontory of Arzon at the mouth of the Gulf of Moribhan in South Brittany.
 Newgrange
The most famous of all Passage Graves, moreover all of the Megalithic sites, of Ireland is Newgrange, Co Meath. The Newgrange mound was built on the highest point of a low ridge some 61 metres above sea level overlooking the Boyne. This approximately circular mound measures 85 metres in maximum diametre and about 11 metres in height. It covers about one acre and is composed mainly of water-milled stones. A continuous line of 97 kerbstones, many of which have decoration, surrounds the mound. The entrance to the passage is on the southeast behind a richly decorated kerbstone and a large rectangular slab originally closed this entrance. A short vertical line in the middle of the decorative composition of the kerbstone is aligned with the entrance. The orthostatic passage is roofed with large slabs; near the entrance these slabs rest directly on the orthostats, but elsewhere, they rest on corbels - courses of slabs, the upper oversailing the one below. The upper surfaces of some of these roof slabs have grooves or channels picked in them to carry off rainwater percolating through the Cairn. In addition, the roof joints were caulked with sea sand and burnt soil. The height of the passage roof increases towards the chamber and the combined length of passage and chamber is just over 24 metres. Many of the orthostats and some roof-stones are decorated and this decoration is particularly frequent in the inner parts of the passage and in the chamber. The chamber with its two lateral cells and one terminal cell is of the common 'cruciform' plan. It would seem that the eastern cell was the more important, it is larger than the others were, and contains the most decoration. The cruciform chamber is roofed with a very fine 6 metres high corbelled vault. Four large and slightly hollowed 'basin stones' occur in the chamber, such stones occur in other Passage Tombs and they may once have contained the burnt or the unburned remains of the dead. Excavation revealed that a considerable amount of material has collapsed from the mound, a layer of cairn stones 8 to 10 metres wide lies outside the kerb. On the southeast, a lot of angular pieces of quartz were found at the base of the collapse. A similar quartz facing has been found at Knockroe Passage Tomb, Co Kilkenny. At dawn on the midwinter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the rays of the rising sun shine through the 'roof-box' and briefly illuminates the chamber. Clearly, the orientation of the tomb was of great importance to the builders and solar phenomena had a very important place in their magico-religious beliefs and practices. Because the tomb has been open since at least the early seventeenth century A.D., little has survived of its original contents. Excavations in the chamber recovered the cremated bones of four or five people and the position of these bone fragments suggests that the burial deposits may have been placed in the basin stones in the end and side cells. Objects found with the human bones, presumably grave goods placed with the remains, are typical of Irish Passage Tombs and include some stone beads and some small balls of polished stone. The decoration on the stones of Newgrange was generally picked out, probably with a hammer and a flint point. Motifs usually consist of closely set small pockmarks executed in this fashion and chevrons, zig-zags, lozenges, triangles, spirals, and circles are common. The decoration varies from the haphazard to the formal, from apparently casually and poorly carved designs to the superbly executed and aesthetically pleasing compositions of spirals, arcs, and lozenges on the celebrated entrance stone. It is obvious that the designs on the entrance stone and on stones such as the tomb orthostats were meant to be clearly seen, but many, particularly the more picked ones, occur on the backs of stones and were lost to sight when these stones were put in place. Waddell believes that "the designs had some significance for their carvers and the hidden motifs suggest, in some instances at least, that the very act of carving a particular design may have been more important than its display" (Waddell, 61). Palynological analysis of some turves revealed they contained wheat pollen and they had evidently been stripped from fields in which cereals had grown. Some of the rounded stones, such as examples of granite, may have been deliberately selected many kilometres to the north and then transported south (Waddell, 62). When it is remembered that the monument also contains at least 450 large slabs, some over five tonnes in weight, it seems that it was the work of a substantial and wealthy population with considerable social organization and engineering skill. Indeed, the scale of monuments such as Newgrange raises important questions about the size and density of the population, craft specialization, and social structure. Newgrange was built around the end of the fourth millennium B.C. The burnt soil, used to caulk the roof joints contained charcoal fragments which provided radiocarbon date ranges of 3316-2992 B.C. and 3304-2922 B.C (O'Kelly, 1998, 75).
Wedge TombsWedge Tombs are the most widespread of the megalithic tomb types found in Ireland. About 400 are known and the distribution shows a marked western and southern bias. The counties of Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary contain between them over two hundred tombs and more than one hundred are in Co Clare alone. The name 'Wedge Tomb' arises from the fact that the tomb chamber is usually wedge-shaped in plan and in longitudinal section profile, that is wider and higher at one end. This wider, higher end contains the entrance and faces southwest in the great majority of cases, an orientation in the passage tombs. The gallery is built of orthostats and roofed with slabs laid directly on them. The galleries vary greatly in length, from as small as 2 metres to 14 metres. Despite the fact that the Wedge Tombs are the most numerous of the four main classes, the number of excavated sites is very small in proportion, and since a number has produced no finds, our knowledge if the burial practice is very unsatisfactory (O'Kelly, 1997, 117). Cremation seems to dominate but unburned burials have been found in the same tombs side by side with the cremations. A good example is that at Baurnadomeeny, Co Tipperary, where total excavation of the site revealed many interesting details. The chamber had been dug out in recent times and nothing survived of the original contents except a few small fragments of burnt human bone and one shard of featureless pottery. There were five cremation burials in the portico. Shards of pottery accompanied one of the burials, which were in a slab-like cist, but again, the ware was featureless. The whole tomb had been encased in built stonework bedded in yellow soil before the loose cairn cover had been thrown up, the encasement being held at its base by two arcs of boulders. Large slabs set in a circle had marked the cairn edge 15 metres in diametre. The tomb was centrally placed within it and it was clear that when complete, the cairn covered and hid the whole tomb structure. A further fifteen cremated burials were found, twelve in diminutive cists under the cairn and three just outside the kerb. Otherwise finds were few. The cairn base produced some shards from flat-based pots of the domestic-type functional ware similar to that labeled Class II at Lough Gur. There was no Beaker ware. However, the Bell-Beaker was found under the pavement in the Wedge Tomb at Ballyedmonduff, Co Dublin belongs to the All-over-ornamented Pan-European type, and the closest parallel are British. So far, no certain example of a Wedge Tomb has been found in Britain. Only one or two sites have been claimed as such holds that the allées covertes or Gallery Graves of Brittany provide prototypes for the Irish Wedges. Seeing in the small antechambers and in the outer walling of the Breton tombs parallels for the porticoes and double walling of the Irish ones. The finds from the Breton tombs include Beaker and flat-bottomed ware akin to that found in some Irish tombs as well as barbed-and-tanged arrowheads, and support the view that the allées covertes are ancestral to the Irish series. However, some scholars are of the opinion that the fundamental morphological differences between the two, such as the rectangular and consistently parallel sides of the Breton Galleries, together with their eastern orientation, rule out a 'parental connection' (Waddell, 75). This would suggest that the Wedge Tomb is an indigenous Irish development. It is possible that the people of Clare, Cork, and Kerry in particular may have continued the Megalithic tradition at a time when it had been superseded elsewhere. Unfortunately, the few Wedge Tombs, which have been excavated in the south, have been singularly unproductive as regards datable finds.
Megalith Builders Prehistoric peoples, in general, were frequently more concerned to perpetuate the remains of the dead than to provide impressive earthly dwellings. While many have been destroyed in the past and many more in recent times, reliable estimates place the surviving number at about 1,200 (O'Kelly, 1997, 85). Some believe that every type of Megalith was built by a new invasion of people with no idea of what was going on with the other groups who were building other types of tombs. This cannot have been so, and when one looks at the similarities in the tomb types rather than the differences, it emerges that there must have been many contacts between the various and varying groups. The Court Tomb and the Portal Tomb builders were living and working at about the same time in the northern half of Ireland. In so far as excavation has revealed them, the objects placed with the bones of the dead in both types of tomb were the same. Similarly, a transepted Court Tomb Gallery has a cruciform plan similar to that of many Irish Passage Graves, though there are differences of detail. The shallow façades of Court Tombs can be compared with the slightly dished fronts of some wedges, and some of the latter have circular cairns with orthostatic kerbs like those of the Passage Tombs. It may be argued that these comparable features are not valid evidence of influence by one group on another. But, there must have been communication since there is distributional overlap both in space and time, and the basic effort for all builders seems to have been the construction of a House for the Dead. But while the distributional overlap of tomb types, there is also evidence of mutual exclusiveness, particularly amongst the Court Tombs and Wedges. The virtual confinement of the Court Tombs to the northern third of the country and the preponderance of Wedge Tombs in the south must mean that these areas were differentiated from one another in some way in their social structure (O'Kelly, 1997, 123). O'Kelly believes that "there is no necessity to invoke influxes of colonists from Britain and the Continent to explain the phenomenon of the Megaliths or to explain why some of the Irish types resemble types found outside Ireland" (O'Kelly, 1997, 123). At one time, it was believed that the practice of building Megalithic tombs emanated from the eastern Mediterranean by a process of diffusion, but the radiocarbon dating of tombs in Brittany and elsewhere in the West has shown that the practice began earlier there than in the east. From the Early Neolithic onward, Ireland cannot have been isolated from the rest of the world, awaiting the influx of colonists to point the way to the next step. The practice of erecting a House for the Dead would have become known through two-wave contacts with Britain and the Continent. These Houses are of the two basic kinds wherever they are found in the west, Gallery Graves and Passage Tombs. By a process not understood at present, one social group adopted one type and a different group another, each community developing its own variant or variants of the basic types. The idea of a House of the Dead could have been a familiar one long before the first Megaliths were erected in Ireland. And, it could have lain dormant until the conditions were right, that is, a well-fed, settled population with time and reserves of wealth and labour sufficient to undertake enterprises on such a scale (O'Kelly, 1997, 123).
Burial Rite and Ritual Many aspects of the burial ritual of the Passage Tomb builders are not understood, but it is clear that these tombs usually contain remains representing several individuals, frequently cremated, but sometimes unburned. Because cremation was so frequent and because so many of the excavated tombs have been disturbed in the past; reliable details of numbers buried are often unavailable. But, in spite of damage and disturbance, it seems fair to say that cremation was the predominate rite. In some tombs, it is possible that the human remains were all collectively deposited in a single ceremony: since the burials in the terminal and lateral cells at Fourknocks I, Co Meath, formed a fairly compact homogeneous deposit. Since smaller unburned bones such as vertebrae were absent, some selection process clearly took place and distinctions were made between adult and children, and various bone deposits were deliberately placed in certain areas. All the evidence indicates a complex ritual both outside and inside the tomb. Discrete burial deposits were found in several locations in the Knowth cemetery: all were cremations. In site 15, for example, an undifferentiated tomb with three sill stones, one segment contained some unburned bones of a child covered by four flat stones. A second, larger deposit representing at least one child and two adults lay on top of the slabs, but the length of time between the two deposits, if any, cannot be ascertained (Waddell, 83). Animal bones may be evidence of funeral feasts and the discovery of shells at some sites has prompted the suggestion that shellfish may have been eaten as well. It is not clear what role the stone basins played in the ritual. Some may have once have contained deposits of cremated bone, but most of those recorded to date come from disturbed deposits. A limited range of artifacts occurs fairly consistently with Passage Tomb burials but their restricted character presents an intriguingly specialized and perplexing assemblage. Beads and pendants, bone and antler pins, stone balls, maceheads, and fragments of Carrowkeel pottery are characteristic finds. Maceheads were made of pale grey flint. They were polished and decorated on all six faces. The polishing, perforating, and decorating of this hard flint was a work of exceptional craftsmanship and the object may well have been a prestigious symbol of religious or political authority. Both maceheads are types well known in Scotland, particularly in Orkney. Some of decorated bone and antler rods may have been more than mere pins and had some symbolic significance. The most enigmatic of the items are probably the balls of stone. No functional use for them are known, however, some of the balls fit neatly into some circular pits or cup marks on the stones at Loughcrew, and may have been used in ritual performances of some sort (Waddell, 74). Stone implements, such as flint scrapers, are rarely found in the burial deposits. Fragments of pottery are fairly consistently associated with burials, and invariably, these are of Carrowkeel ware with the characteristic profuse, impressed, and incised decoration, hemispherical form and coarse friable fabric. The frequent occurrence of just shards of parts of pots rather than fragments of complete vessels would seem to suggest that the funerary custom often demanded no more than token deposits of pottery. Perhaps they were ritually broken elsewhere; indeed, it is possible that sine if these pots were specifically made for the burial ceremony (Waddell, 74).
Megalithic Art The application of megalithic art entailed a great amount of time, trouble, and skill, thus clearly indicating its importance. At its outset in Ireland, megalithic art is not found in all areas where passage tombs occur. It survives at only a dozen or sites or groups, and these are concentrated in the Meath region. Elsewhere, art is rare and often of poor quality. This has led Eogan to argue that "perhaps art was not an integral feature of the Passage Tomb tradition; yet, it played a key role in ritual where it did exist" (Eogan, 148). At Knowth, there is an extraordinary amount of Megalithic art. It occurs externally (on the kerbstones) and internally (on orthostats, sills, capstones, and corbels in the tombs). There are also twenty stones or fragments found in a disturbed position - most likely to have occurred during the building and/or use of the souterrains. To date, a total of about 250 stones with formal decoration, that is recognized shapes or motifs, on over 300 surfaces are known. In addition, there are many more stones with pick marks that do not constitute a shape or motif but nevertheless, must have had a meaning for the builders and users. Two main techniques were used in applying the art: incision and picking (or pocking). It can be assumed that the tools were made from hard stone, such as flint or quartz, but unfortunately, none have come to light. Incision, the less frequently used technique, involved the drawing of a pointed implement along surface. Picking is the predominant technique. Picking is the making of a series of small pits or pickings, using a sharp point. It varies in depth, and in the form of tool used. The chisel and the punch are the two most frequently used tools. Various classificatory schemes for the art of the Irish Passage Tombs have been advanced. Mrs. O'Kelly sees that there are two main groups: curvilinear and rectilinear. The former consists of circles, dots surrounded by circles, cup-marks, U-shapes, spirals, and radials. The latter consists of short parallel lines, offsets, chevron/zigzag, lozenges, triangles, and serptiforms (O'Kelly, 1998, 146-47). In the north of Europe, art is a feature of funnel-Beaker cultures beginning during the fourth millennium B.C. and continuing into the third. This art occurs on pottery, but never on the structural stones. In Iberia, the decoration of the structural stones in the Passage Tombs was characteristic of some regions, especially the west, but mainly north of the Mondego Valley with forty-two sites having a total of 122 known stones. Another aspect of Iberia, is the rich decoration on objects placed in tombs, noticeably schist plaques and 'idols' of various forms. The other great concentration is in Brittany, with around 200 stones from forty-six Passage Tombs. There is also art on French Gallery Graves and rock-cut tombs. Britain has twenty-one stones from seven sites. Yet, Passage Tomb Megalithic art is most frequently found in Ireland, where at least fifty tombs have yielded up to 560 decorated stones (O'Kelly, 1998, 151). The association of art with tombs clearly indicates that it is a funerary art, which must have had meaning and significance. The placing certain motifs in certain places seems to have been important. They may have a shamanistic purpose such as aborigine cave art, or more likely, they were important symbols concerning the afterlife.
Conclusion With the occurrence of similar Megalithic monuments in other parts of Western Europe, it is no wonder that many archaeologists view them as being made by foreigners. With each different type of Megalithic tomb having been made by a separate invasion of different groups of people throughout the Neolithic period. There are many similarities in the types, burial rites and goods, and Megalithic art of the Irish Megalithic Tombs with those from Britain, Scotland, Iberia, and especially Brittany. However, there are many differences as well. The Irish are known for taking an idea and changing it to suit their needs. The idea of Megalith building and the Cult of the Dead no doubt came from a group of people outside of Ireland. Nevertheless, the Irish took these ideas and made them their own.
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