What is recorded here

Five stone settings ring the tombs at Knowth, including a circular spread of exotic quartz beside kerbstones 27 and 28. That southeastern point frames the hidden back of Newgrange, suggesting the ceremonies there watched the greater mound rather than being watched. People may have gathered beside these stones to mark seasons, remember ancestors or negotiate with forces older than memory. The clay, stone and quiet geometry still hold the shape of that attention.

Four areas with stone settings were established outside the kerb of Tomb 1C, the most elaborate being outside the entrances to the E and W tombs but another is just SE of the mound. Two small related areas are adjacent to Tomb 16, and a fifth setting is associated with Tomb 4. This is a circular spread of exotic stones (diam. c. 5m x c. 4.5m; max. D 0.15m) beside kerbstones 27 and 28 of Tomb 1C, which are both richly decorated at the SE edge of the great mound. The hollow was filled with a clay and stone mix, including quartz stones, and c. 3m to the E was the stump of what might have been a standing stone in a shallow stony socket. There is no further elaboration at this spread but this point also provides the best view of the back or NW side of the great mound at Newgrange (ME019-045----), and stratigraphically it is earlier than the Beaker habitation of Concentration E (ME019-030036-). It is not conserved. (Eogan and Cleary 2017, 240-3) True location: ITM (699656, 773425) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 21 September 2020

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