What is recorded here

Knowth Tomb 12 sits seventeen metres from the great mound, a small kerbed chamber holding cremated bones and two pins. Its stones bear concentric circles and stippling, while a dressed sandstone oval lies waiting just outside the kerb. The chamber is tiny enough to enter alone, yet wide enough to swallow a person whole. What the pins joined, what the oval represented, and who breathed inside that dark passage have all dissolved into the shale.

Knowth cemetery, Tomb 12: Situated c. 17m NW of the great mound, Tomb 1C, and just 2m NE of Tomb 11. This is the remains of a kerbed mound(ext. diam. c. 14.7m) of dark shale material (max. H 0.75m)lying over a cairn around the central tomb and the original humus. The kerb is represented by 6 kerbstones in situ N-E and 4 displaced kerbstones at SW. At the centre one orthostat and the sockets of 13 others represent an undifferentiated passage tomb (L 6.75m plus; Wth 0.3-1.5m) opening to the S. The backstone had fallen into the chamber and the sillstone had broken off. A small sample of cremated remains with fragments of two bone pins were in the chamber. A kerbstone has two motifs of concentric circles, and the backstone of the tomb has stippling. A dressed ovoid sandstone piece (L 0.5m; diam. c. 0.3m) with pick-dressed lines cut around both ends and broader vertical rills in the central area was found just outside the kerb and could be a religious fetish or idol. The mound is completely reconstructed. (Eogan 1968, 315-23, Site 4; 1984, 66-72, Site 12; 1986, 77-8) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 10 July 2007 Amended: 16 September 2020 See the attached images: _1 Cemetery plan from Knowth 6, Fig. 2:1 _2 Tomb plan from Knowth 1, Fig. 35 _3 Sandstone idol

Passage tomb, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 3300–2500 BCE). It is part of the significant Knowth complex, one of the major ceremonial and burial sites in the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Area.

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