Knowth (; ga, Cnóbha) is a

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

passage grave A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or with stone, and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age, and are found largely in Wester ...

and an ancient monument of the

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

Brú na Bóinne (; 'Palace of the Boyne' or more properly 'Valley of the Boyne') or Boyne valley tombs, is an area in County Meath, Ireland, located in a bend of the River Boyne. It contains one of the world's most important prehistoric landscapes dating from ...

located 8.4 km west of Drogheda in Ireland's valley of the

River Boyne The River Boyne ( ga, An Bhóinn or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows towards the Northeast through C ...

. It is the largest passage grave of the Brú na Bóinne complex. It consists of a large mound (known as Site 1) and 17 smaller satellite tombs. The mound is about high and in diameter, covering roughly a hectare. It contains two passages placed along an east-west line and is encircled by 127 kerbstones, of which three are missing, and four badly damaged. The large mound has been estimated to date from c. 3200 BC. The passages are independent of each other, leading to separate burial chambers. The eastern passage arrives at a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

chamber, not unlike that found at

Newgrange Newgrange ( ga, Sí an Bhrú) is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, located on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, west of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3200 B ...

, which contains three recesses and basin stones into which the

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

remains of the dead were placed. The right-hand recess is larger and more elaborately decorated with megalithic art than the others, which is typical for Irish passage graves of this type. The western passage ends in an undifferentiated chamber, which is separated from the passage by a sill stone. The chamber seems to have also contained a basin stone which was later removed and is now located about two-thirds down the passageway.

Megalithic art

Knowth contains more than a third of the total number of examples of megalithic art in all of Western Europe; over 200 decorated stones were found during excavations. Much of the artwork is found on the kerbstones, particularly approaching the entrances to the passages. Many of the motifs are typical:

spirals In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point. Helices Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:lozenges and serpentiform. However, the megalithic art at Knowth contains a wide variety of images, such as crescent shapes, and the oldest known illustration of the moon in history. Much of this artwork was carved on the backs of the stones; a type of megalithic art known as

hidden art Hidden or The Hidden may refer to: Film and television Film * ''The Hidden'' (film), a 1987 American science fiction/horror film * ''Hidden'' (2005 film) or ''Caché'', a French thriller film * ''Hidden'' (2009 film), a Norwegian horror film ...

. This suggests all manner of theories as regards the function of megalithic art within the Neolithic community who built the monuments in the Boyne valley. It is possible that they intended the art to be hidden. It is also possible that they simply recycled the stones and reused the other side.

History

There is some evidence for late Neolithic and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

activity on the site. Most of this stems from the existence of a

grooved ware Grooved ware is the name given to a pottery style of the British Neolithic. Its manufacturers are sometimes known as the Grooved ware people. Unlike the later Beaker ware, Grooved culture was not an import from the continent but seems to have de ...

timber circle located near the entrance to the eastern passage. Archeological evidence suggests that this was used as a ritual or sacred area after the great mound at Knowth had already fallen into disuse. Evidence for ritual consists of a large number of

votive offerings A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

found in and around the immediate areas of the timbers that formed the circle. Knowth

The hill at Knowth fell into disrepair, and the mound or cairn slipped, causing the entrances to both passages to be covered. The site remained practically unused for a period of two thousand years. The site was briefly used as a burial site; some 35

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Ea ...

graves were found on the site during excavations. In the late

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

and early Christian period, it became a

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

with encircling ditches and souterrains added. Knowth became a habitational site for the first time. Two ditches were dug, one at the base of the mound behind the kerbstones, and the other at the top. At this stage, the entrances to both passages seem to have been discovered. Evidence includes early Christian graffiti on the stones in the eastern chamber, and four names were carved in

ogham Ogham ( Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langu ...

. It seems it was at this stage that the basin stone from the western chamber was moved in an attempt to remove it and was abandoned in the passage because it got stuck. Knowth became a significant political site and the capital of the Kingdom of Northern Brega. After a brief military interlude following the Norman invasion of Ireland, when the Normans used Knowth as a motte in the 12th century, the site came into the possession of the Cistercian monks of

Mellifont Abbey Mellifont Abbey ( ga, An Mhainistir Mhór, literally 'the Big Monastery'), was a Cistercian abbey located close to Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland. It was the first abbey of the order to be built in Ireland. In 1152, it hosted the Synod of Ke ...

. It seems that the mound was then again used as a grange or farm. Stone walls were built over the mound, and stone buildings within the walls. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the site was used mainly for agriculture until most of the site was taken over by the state in 1939. NG Kerbstone with spirals and lozenges

A historical reference to the cave is to be found in the

Triads of Ireland The title ''Trecheng Breth Féne'' "A Triad of Judgments of the Irish", more widely known as "The Triads of Ireland", refers to a miscellaneous collection of about 256 Old Irish triads (and some numerical variants) on a variety of topics, such as ...

, dating from the 14th to the 19th century, where ", and " are listed under the heading, "the three darkest places in Ireland". The last, meaning the "Cave of the Alders", is generally thought to be the present Dunmore Cave, while the first two translate as the caves of Knowth and the caves of Slaney. It is not known which exact system of caves/passage tombs near the river Slaney is being referred to, with the most likely being those at

Baltinglass Baltinglass, historically known as Baltinglas (), is a town in south-west County Wicklow, Ireland. It is located on the River Slaney near the border with County Carlow and County Kildare, on the N81 road. Etymology The town's Irish name, ''Be ...

. Other sources translate the listed locations as Rath Croghan, the cave or crypt of Slane and the "Cave of the Ferns". The east-west orientation of the passages at Knowth suggests astronomical alignment with the

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...

es. The alignment at Knowth does not occur today. This is due to a number of factors. First of all, the passages were discovered by later settlers and were, to some extent, destroyed or incorporated into souterrains. In this way the original entrances to the passages were distorted or destroyed, making it difficult to establish if an alignment ever existed. Further, the recent excavations (1962 onwards) under George Eogan resulted in the erection of a concrete slab wall inside the mound's west entrance, restricting any investigation into the possible alignments. It seems likely that the passages were intended to align. Also, the alignments of ancient monuments can change due to

Milankovitch cycles Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years. The term was coined and named after Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković. In the 1920s, he hypot ...

. A brief excavation of the site was carried out in 1941 by Macallister. However, major full-scale excavations began on the site in 1962 and were undertaken by

George Eogan George Eogan, MRIA (14 September 1930 – 18 November 2021) was an Irish archaeologist. He was born in Nobber, County Meath, and studied at University College Dublin (UCD) and then Trinity College Dublin. In 1965, he was appointed to a lectu ...

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...

. When his excavations began, very little was known about the full extent of the site. The entrances to the western and eastern passages were discovered in 1967 and 1968 respectively, and, slowly, the layers of activity at the site of Knowth were uncovered. The excavation has produced numerous books and reports on the findings. The archaeological excavation of Knowth East ended any chance of research on alignments when George Eogan erected the concrete wall across the east-passage entrance. The most extensive research on alignments and astronomy at Knowth was carried out by American-Irish researcher Martin Brennan.Brennan, Martin (1984), ''The Stars and the Stones: Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland'' Thames & Hudson was later re-published as ''The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland'' Inner Traditions, 1994 ;

Access

Access is by guided tour only. Tours begin at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre in Donore. Visitors can look down the eastern passage and visit the nearby modern interpretive room.

References

Sources

* Byrne, Francis John, ''Irish Kings and High-Kings''. Batsford, London, 1973. . * Mac Shamhráin, Ailbhe, "Church and dynasty in Early Christian Brega: Lusk, Inis Pátraic and the cast of Máel-Finnia, king and saint", Table 8.1, Lineages of Síl nÁedo Sláine, p. 127; in ''The Island of St Patrick: Church and ruling dynasties in Fingal and Meath, 400–1148'', (ed.) Mac Shamhráin, Four Courts, 2004.

External links

Excavations at Knowth
Digital Repository of Ireland; online edition of 6-volume Royal Irish Academy record
Brú na Bóinne > Built heritage > Knowth
worldheritageireland.ie
Knowth.comMeath Tourism InformationBrú na Bóinne in myth and folklore
{{Coord, 53, 42, 06, N, 6, 29, 30, W, display=title 4th-millennium BC architecture Archaeological sites in County Meath World Heritage Sites in the Republic of Ireland Tourist attractions in County Meath Rock art in Europe Royal sites of Ireland Boyne culture Tombs in the Republic of Ireland