What is recorded here

Five distinct metalworking areas emerged beside the ancient Knowth passage tombs, including area 2 at the mound's north-west edge. That tenth-century workshop dumped charcoal and iron slag into a shallow pit whose base still held a molten concentrate. A nearby ochre stain marked a small bowl furnace, proving that human ingenuity returned to the sacred ground centuries after its first builders departed.

Five areas with metalworking activity associated with features from the first millennium AD were recovered in excavation at the Knowth cemetery of prehistoric passage tombs. This is metalworking area 2 at the NW edge of the great mound and it was at the centre of a thick fill in the upper level of the lower fosse of the rath. It is probably tenth century in date and consists of a rectangular spread (dims 2.8m x 2.5m) of charcoal and iron slag with smaller spreads extending NE. Two shallow pits with charcoal (diam. 1m; D 0.25: dims 0.7m x 0.45m; D 0.15m) were beneath the slag, the latter with a molten concentrate at its base. Just E of the mixed spread was a second spread (dims 1.8m x 1.2m) that was almost entirely iron slag with an ochre substance that was probably a small bowl furnace. (Eogan 2012, 101-04) True location: ITM (699596, 773487) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 21 September 2020 See the attached illustrations: _1 Early medieval features, from Knowth 5, Fig. 4:1 _2 Plan of metalworking, from Knowth 5, Fig. 4:12

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