County: Meath Site name: KNOWTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: George Eogan, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 699829m, N 773817m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.704499, -6.488006
The greater part of this year's excavations concentrated on the excavation of the Eastern Tomb of Site 1. Other work included the checking of certain Early Christian features, and a complex of late drains and ditches on the southern part of the site.
THE EASTERN TOMB
Pre-tomb activity
Evidence for this came to light in the area of the passage and consists of a continuous layer of black earth, averaging 5cm in depth, containing some charcoal. Spreads of cobbling, the stones averaging 6cm in diameter, occur within this. Two hearths and nine stakeholes also turned up. It appears that these features are the remains of domestic activity the full nature of which has not yet been established.
Chamber and Passage construction
About two-thirds of the passage 25m, is almost completely excavated and a considerable amount of work has been carried out in the chamber. After erection the holes in which the chamber orthostats stood were filled with tightly packed stones and earth. It has not yet been established if each orthostat stood in an individual socket. It now appears that the construction of the chamber and the inner part of the passage was finalised before that of the outer part of the passage. After building, largish stones were piled around the chamber and the inner part of the passage.
Excavation of the outer two-thirds of the passage is nearing completion. It has been established that the orthostats were set in two parallel trenches, each 70cm wide on average. The orthostats were set closest to the edge on the passage side, leaving a gap of 10-15cm or enough for one row of packing stones. Both trenches, which had been cut through the cobbling and layer of black earth described above, were backfilled with oval-shaped stones overlain by earth. The area immediately behind the orthostats contained a fill of stones. These acted as a 'foundation' for the corbels on which the outer part of the capstones rested.
A thin layer of earth and small stones on the floor of the passage appears to have been a laid-down floor.Decoration has now been found on at least 64 stones. These have been indexed and scale drawings of about half have been completed, indicating that there is considerable variation in the range and in its location. A further feature is the large number of stones with pick-marks which do not constitute a formal motif. Previous work has established that burial took place in all three recesses. Apart from a small extension from the right-hand (northern) recess burials did not occur in the central part of the chamber. This year's work was concentrated in the right-hand recess, where six stratified deposits had previously been revealed. By extending excavation into the inner part of the recess (which involved moving the stone basin back 40cm) a cremation spread, a further part of that termed Deposit 2, was recovered. The inner part of the recess did not have burials, indeed the stone basin may originally have stood there, being moved slightly forward at some subsequent time, probably during the Early Christian period.
Ditches and Drains
During the excavation of Site 2, it was found that the western part of the site was enclosed within a ditch, as yet not securely dated. This season's work confirmed that the ditch extends around the southern part of Site 2, though it does not seem to be concentric to it. The precise date and purpose of the ditch have not yet been established.A complex series of ditches and drains was excavated on the eastern side of the main mound in 1978 and further work was carried out on them this season in conjunction with that done on the ditch around Site 2. Where they intersect with the Site 2 ditch they cut it and thus are stratigraphically later. The ditches and drains intersect and here again stratigraphical sequence is the clearest indicator of their chronological priority.
Among the finds were sherds of pottery, some of which were Norman but post-medieval predominated. The drains, therefore, seem to be a late feature in the archaeology of Knowth.
Click on the link below for the Royal Irish Academy's online resource for Knowth Excavations:
