County: Meath Site name: KNOWTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19:30 Licence number: E000070
Author: George Eogan, Knowth Project, University College Dublin
Site type: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb and Habitation site
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 699429m, N 773517m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.701880, -6.494157
In association with the ongoing programme of conservation, excavation continued in the passage of Site 1, the Western Tomb. This involved extending the cutting inwards to the area between Orthostats 24 and 60 and 30 and 55, as well as a small area to the back of Orthostat 5, an area that had suffered considerable damage. The overlying mound consisted entirely of smallish, rounded loose stones; a number were water-rolled and would have originated in a post-glacial landscape or possibly from the bed of the Boyne. There were also some angular stones, mainly limestone, and these appear to have been quarried.
The cairn stones overlay the basal layer of the mound. This consisted of redeposited material. Some of this had an organic content and involved the use of sods, but there were also thin layers of shale. This basal layer, on average 1m thick on each side of the passage, extended across the top of the capstones, where it was 0.15m thick. The cross-section was hog-backed; the material to the sides was more compressed. The basal layer was placed directly on the old ground surface.
The mound material was examined by Brenda Collins. She reported that occupation and food debris was absent from the samples and that charcoal, which undoubtedly derived from episodes of burning, was present in very small quantities and could not be interpreted as the dumping of charred waste. Seeds associated with pasture, meadow and grassland were indicated, and the presence of annual weeds was noted.
In this particular section the passage was in a very poor state of preservation. Most of the stones had suffered structural damage. All the orthostats leaned inwards, the corbels had been displaced and a number, as a result of mound adjustment, had been pushed down on the outside of the orthostats. The straightening up of the orthostats involved the lifting of some corbels, and consequently a complete record of the structure was obtained. Over the floor of the passage was a spread of stones. Apparently these slipped in from the cairn when structural adjustment was taking place.
As part of the conservation work Corbel 5 (at the back of Orthostat 5) was lifted. Underneath was a deposit of cremated bone (identification pending). This was a primary feature. It backed on to the orthostat, but there was no formal edging on the other sides. The back of Orthostat 5 had megalithic art, consisting of large spirals. The cremation burial extended up to the orthostats at about the level of the upper spiral. As this decoration was 'associated' with the burial, it was probably of special significance. It should also be noted that the orthostat directly opposite (No. 81) also had hidden art, while the overlying capstone, No. 3, had decoration on its bottom surface. It is considered that these stones were reused from an earlier tomb (Eogan, Antiquity 72 (1998), 162–72). Further examples of megalithic art were discovered. These consisted of two capstones (Nos 23 and 24) and three corbels (Nos 24–26, 26–27 and 58–60).
Before the conservation work at Site 9 the already excavated surface around it was re-examined, but no new features emerged. Also in this area a cutting was opened to see if the palisade trenches continued and, therefore, constituted a circle (Eogan 1984, Excavations at Knowth, Vol. 1, 219–33). No features or finds came to light.
Click on the link below for the Royal Irish Academy's online resource for Knowth Excavations:
Everything you wanted to know about Knowth in six volumes
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