Moat — Knowth

SITUATION: This great kerbed mound (Tomb 1C) is the focal point of a large passage tomb cemetery which has undergone extensive excavation (E00070) 1962-2000 and conservation. It is at the highest point of the bend of the Boyne or the Brú na Bóinne complex of prehistoric monuments consisting of passage tombs and prehistoric earthwork monuments of a ritual nature that are being recorded through remote sensing techniques, oblique aerial photography and archaeological excavation. This tomb is situated at the W end of a shale ridge where the River Boyne, approaching from the W, is forced S by the shale and then E and N in a curve encompassing the townlands of Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth, each with an extraordinarily large passage tomb mound as a focus for other monuments. The Knowth mound has at least 19 smaller passage tombs clustered around it S-W-E. In addition there is a record of another (ME019-030078-) that was somewhere in the grounds of Knowth House, just to the NE. However, satellite tombs and other features are largely absent E-S of the great mound because later agricultural activity has removed almost all archaeological material in this area. SUMMARY: This central mound, which was built and utilised over three centuries c. 3200 – c. 2900 BC, was not the first structure or even the first tomb at this location (Eogan and Cleary 2017, 44). Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide a detailed sequence of tomb construction and other activities at the complex, although the broad outline is clear. The mound is subcircular (dims 95m N-S; 80m E-W; H 10m) and has a circuit of 127 contiguous kerbstones including a few gaps, which are numbered clockwise from its junction with Tomb 16 at NE. The incorporation of this tomb into the great mound and the straightening of the kerb of the great mound to avoid Tomb 13 at N demonstrate that these tombs at least pre-date Tomb 1C. Incurving of the kerb at E and W funnels traffic to the entrances of two back-to-back passage tombs, the chambers of which are only c. 5m apart at the centre of the mound. The excavator concludes that three major phases are represented in the mound, the first being a passage tomb (1A) that was dismantled to provide a location and materials for the second phase (Tomb 1B) when the E and W chambers with short passages and their stabilising cairn (diam. 38m N-S) were built. Finally, after an interval of unknown length but thought not to be very long, the passages were lengthened to meet a new kerb, and the mound of sods intermixed with various clay and stone layers(Tomb 1C) was added (ibid. 49). Almost all the structural stones are greywacke, which was not derived from the immediate locality although there is a possible source at Clogher Head, Co. Louth. Quartz, another exotic stone used in the finishing, may have come from the Dublin/Wicklow Mountains, and the granite that was used might have been sourced in the Mourne Mountains. EXCAVATION: Such a prominent mound attracted remarkably little attention from antiquarians (ibid. 12-18), probably because it had no open ‘caves’, unlike the great mounds at Newgrange (ME019-045----) and Dowth (ME020-017----). The earliest investigation was undertaken in the 1941 when 58 kerbstones were exposed at S and at NW. At the same time a souterrain, No. 5, on the great mound and what was thought to be an entrance passage into the same mound were explored (Macalister 1943), but the latter proved to be one of the satellite tombs, No. 14. In 1962 a programme of excavation under the direction of Dr. George Eogan who became Professor of Archaeology at University College Dublin in 1979 was initiated to resolve research questions raised by the excavation of a small undifferentiated passage tomb at Townleyhall II (LH024-008----), c. 3.5km to the NE. Although few features were visible outside the great mound before work began a number of tombs were soon excavated around its N edge, with some archaeological material extending inside the kerb of the mound. The passages of the W and E tombs were discovered almost accidentally in July 1967 and August 1968 respectively, but the excavators were not the first people to have entered them in the 5000 years or so since they were abandoned for burial as the tombs had been discovered in the seventh century AD when the mound was converted into a rath (ME019-030040-), and the passages were connected to elaborate souterrains associated with an undefended settlement (ME019-030060-) in the tenth and eleventh centuries (Eogan 2012; Eogan and Cleary 2017, 42). Graffiti in both scholastic ogham and cursive script from these incursions are scratched onto stones in both tombs. The outer ends of both passages had been removed by these works when as many as 14 orthostats or large upright stones from each of the tombs could have been discarded, with the result that the original articulation of the passages with the kerb is not known. Both passages are roofed with lintels or capstones supported on the orthostats or on corbels protruding inwards over them, but pressure from the mound has forced the tops of many orthostats inwards so that much of the passages had an inverted V profile when discovered. The pressure was so great that it has cracked corbels and capstones in a few places, leaving both tombs with conservation and engineering problems that could not be overcome without destroying the integrity of the monument. Therefore, it was decided that these passages and their chambers must remain off-limits to visitors. EAST TOMB: The E tomb (total L 40.2m) is a straight passage (Wth c. 0.6-0.8m; H 1.5-1.6m) that increases in height (max. H 2.7m) as it approaches the cruciform chamber (max. dims 8.16m N-S; 5.6m E-W).The chamber has recesses at N, S and W that are covered by capstones, with a corbelled roof rising over them to the apex (max. H 6.1m) at the centre. The N or right-hand recess is the largest and has an elaborately decorated stone basin while the S recess has a smaller, plainer one. The topmost deposit in the passage and chamber was a charcoal-flecked clay with animal bones and iron material dating from the tenth – eleventh centuries AD, and this was particularly evident in the chamber where two hearths and four pits indicate regular habitation that is probably connected with the use of medieval house 4 (ibid. 59-60). The original deposit in the E tomb produced the remains of more than 170 individuals, about 130 of whom had been cremated, but most of these deposits were a mixture of burnt and unburned bone. The burials were largely confined to the recesses and were accompanied by bone and antler pins, beads, and pendants of stone and fired clay. A remarkable and highly decorated flint macehead was found amongst the primary deposits, although stone or chalk balls and Carrowkeel ware appear to be wholly absent. (ibid. 86-137) WEST TOMB: The W tomb (total L 34.2m) comprises a passage (Wth c. 0.6m; H c. 1.1m) with a slight bend to the south c. 25m in from the kerb leading to a simple undifferentiated chamber (L c. 3.2m; Wth 1.3m; H 2m). A stone basin was found at the bend in the passage but this is not its original position. There are three sillstones beyond the bend, the first guarded on the S by an orthostat (O 49) which is decorated in the rare anthropomorphic style with two owl-like eyes. This has become something of an icon for the tomb and the excavations at Knowth. Many of the kerbstones and a large number of the structural stones of both tombs are decorated with megalithic art, but full publication of this material is still awaited. (ibid. 79-86) TOMB 1A: Both tombs, or rather both chambers and the inner sections of their passages (Tomb 1B), were probably constructed at the same time and they are both secured by the same cairn (diam. c. 38m N-S; max. H c. 9m). This cairn, which had no kerb (ibid. 137-41), held the corbels and capstones in place, especially those over the E chamber where its weight was needed to keep