Tractor at work in the Nanny valley, Bellewstown, Co. Meath

A tractor in a field in the Nanny valley near Bellewstown, Co. Meath, rolling the soil after ploughing. The introduction of agriculture in the New Stone Age was arguably the biggest social and technological revolution of the ancient world, and set in motion the creation of today's civilisation. Mankind emerged from the forests, and left his hunter-gatherer lifestyle behind in favour of a seasonal farming life. It can't, however, have been easy to till the soil without the aid of metal tools, and although the new agricultural lifestyle did provide windows of "down time" - in which the great stone monuments were built - it didn't immediately create a sedentary and enchanted existence. Life was still harsh. The introduction of a lot of grains into the diet may also have contributed to shorter lifespans - not longer ones. Today, we can easily see why the biggest passage-tomb monuments are in this region. The Boyne valley area is abundant in rich, fertile brown soils. The Nanny river runs from Kentstown through Duleek and on through Julianstown towards the sea at Laytown. It is the next river to the south of the Boyne.

Artist creates incredible resurrection image for Easter

Irish artist Richard Moore has created an enormous image of the resurrected Jesus in a field in his home town of Drogheda. The huge depiction - based on a Byzantine image of the resurrected Christ - was created using fertiliser to help bring out the image from the surrounding grass. The gigantic portrait covers an area of approximately two acres.

Richard Moore's image of the resurrected Christ viewed from the air.

Richard explained the inspiration behind the image: "This image stems from a line in the Psalms - 'I will remove sin as far as the East is from the West'. Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection is the balance restored for mankind.  The eyes of the image are on a line in that is on an east west line that extends all the way from Drogheda to Croagh Patrick, an alignment which also marks the Spring and Autumn Equinox sunrise and sunset. And of course Spring Equinox is the astronomical event from which Easter is calculated each year."

"Artist Derek Closkey and myself used very basic materials and astronomy to measure out the image," Richard explained. "I was trying to see how the ancient builders of megalithic sites might have worked out methods of transferring large images on to the ground without being able to see it and still get it right."

Richard has a major interest in ancient megalithic sites and their alignments and is co-author with Anthony Murphy of the book 'Island of the Setting Sun - In Search of Ireland's Ancient Astronomers'.

The giant depiction took about two weeks to create. Richard and Derek marked the area out and then put down fertilizer along the outline of the image to help the grass grow faster so that the image would 'appear' out of the surrounding field.

He has never done anything like this before. Richard typically paints landscapes and streetscapes using mainly oil and acrylics on board and canvas. This is certainly the biggest canvas he's ever used!!