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Entering Alternative Realities: Cognition, Art and Architecture in Irish Passage-Tombs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Jeremy Dronfield
Jeremy Dronfield
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology University of CambridgeDowning St Cambridge CB2 3DZ
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Abstract

This article examines the significance of the passage in Irish passage-tombs. An association between passages and concentric motifs in the engraved parietal art is analyzed, and interpreted in terms of the ‘tunnel experience’ often associated with altered states of consciousness as a means of access between ‘real’ and supernatural worlds. In addition, the implications of the coincidence of tunnel experiences and visions of the dead are considered.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , April 1996 , pp. 37 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1996

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