Live Irish Myths episode 77: Newgrange - Cooperation or forced labour?

In this evening's episode of MythFlix, I will explore an interesting question about the construction of Newgrange and the great monuments of Brú na Bóinne. Did the builders participate through a willing zeal, or was there a sense of enforced manual labour? It's a difficult question and the archaeological evidence doesn't offer much to sway the argument either way. But what about myth?
Go to 15:30 to skip the hellos and introductions.
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[ArchaeoastronomyDatabase]

Very interesting discussion! The idea of people coming together in a time of crisis is fascinating. Perhaps if they had been observing solstice positions over a great many generations and passing that knowledge along, is it possible they had some idea that the range of the sun was lessening (as obliquity of the Earth's axis decreased) for the last few thousand years leading up to this time? While the summer sun would not get as high, the winter sun would be balanced by not getting as low, but it still might have been perceived as a waning, a shrinking of power, and somehow connected that to the deterioration in the climate in their minds. I've often wondered why the roof box at Newgrange is a slit several sun-widths across when the sun would have only risen at an angle to come through the central portion at winter solstice and it could have been much narrower to accomplish the same effect. While the sun would enter the left part of the roof box a bit before the winter solstice, the extra space on the right would be untouched. Perhaps it had a margin on either side as a bound to try and capture the sun over a longer period or to determine if the extreme solstice position was going in one direction or the other or if it would turn back. So many ideas to contemplate!

[MWhaleK]

...There is a famous Neanderthal skeleton that showed that the individual was not only crippled but lived to a quite old age and the first Neanderthal skeleton discovered was basically crippled by arthritis.

[jmch]

Anthony, could the two pigs of the Dagda represent the burning sun of the natural day (spit pig) and the dawning sun (fattening pig) or new sun (new day), therefore always asurring a new day/dawn? Just a thought. Cheers, J