County: Meath Site name: KNOWTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Dr. G. Eogan, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb with Habitation sites
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 699829m, N 773817m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.704499, -6.488006
During 1971 investigations of the large tumulus, Site 1, continued. The areas investigated produced considerable evidence for first and early second millennium AD occupation. Although, as yet, not conclusively proven it appears that the central part of the summit was used for occupation over several centuries. The story of the occupation can briefly be reconstructed as follows. It is assumed that during a fairly early stage in the first millennium AD a house or houses were constructed in the centre of the large tumulus. To give protection to this occupation the tumulus was transformed into a ‘citadel’ by the digging of two concentric penannular ditches, each with an entrance on the south-east side. The outer ditch surrounds the base of the mound just on the inside of the kerb. It is about 5m in width and nearly 3m in depth. The portion of the inner ditch that has been excavated averages 7m in width and 3.5m in depth. As yet it has not been established if this ditch encircles the entire top of the mound.
The ditches may not have remained in use for long. They had gone out of use by about the sixth/seventh century as has been demonstrated by the discovery of such objects as a sherd of sub-Roman Class E pottery and a comb of Iron Age type. But if the ditches went out of use this does not mean that the occupation did. Indeed part of the fill of both ditches consists of occupation debris and the presence of find-places indicates that squatting took place in the partially filled up ditches. In addition there is a complex of five souterrains on the eastern side and at least four of these were constructed at a time after the ditches had fallen into disuse. One of these souterrains extends down from the top of the tumulus to the base and the discovery in it of two 10th-century Anglo-Saxon coins shows that that souterrain was in use in that century. Part of the eastern souterrain complex was linked on to the eastern megalithic chamber and all formed an involved series of underground structures.
There was also an occupation site, a rectangular house, on the eastern side of the large tumulus at its base. This post dated the outer ditch. A souterrain was associated with it and this was integrated into the western megalithic tomb. The finds from this settlement, bone combs, bronze pins, quern stones, etc., indicates that the occupation took place about AD 1,000.
As far as can be determined the Irish settlement extended from the early centuries AD down to the 12th century. At that time the site was taken over by the Normans. Structural evidence for this consists of a flattened “platform” made from rubble on the summit of the large tumulus on the eastern side, part of a wall with mortar, and a number of tooled (or coxed) stones, no doubt part of a larger structure that has disappeared. Finds include sherds of glazed pottery and iron nails. On coin evidence the Norman settlement lasted until about AD 1,300.
Click on the link below for the Royal Irish Academy's online resource for Knowth Excavations:
