County: Meath Site name: KNOWTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19:30 Licence number: 00E0070
Author: George Eogan
Site type: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 699429m, N 773517m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.701880, -6.494157
During this season, work was confined to tidying up of areas in association with the programme of conservation and also checking plans and surveys that had already been carried out. In particular, features that had been revealed during previous excavations in two different places were checked and reviewed.
In the neighbourhood of Site 11 (old number), renumbered Site 4 (Eogan 1974, 34–41; 1984, 32–9), some non-megalithic features, principally pits, were checked and surveyed. This area was very disturbed. The published reports only included the Neolithic features; features dating to later periods were excluded. Those excavations also revealed some pits and disturbances close to Site 4 (new numbering). A review of these features did not provide conclusive evidence regarding their date and function. Some pits appear to be of modern date, but it is also possible that others might be the final remains of the tomb.
The neighbourhood of Site 9 (Eogan 1984, 53–9; also Eogan 1968, 355–6; 1974, 18, then numbered Site 7) had also been disturbed considerably. The digging of a ditch in post-medieval times (Eogan 1968, 355–6, Ditch 2) destroyed part of the passage of Site 9 and also part of what seems to have been a small area of post-medieval domestic activity on the eastern side of Ditch 2. This was a small area, about 4m2; there was no evidence for a structure, so its exact function has not been determined. On the western side of the ditch a reconsideration of features already revealed indicates that the linear setting of eight stones, averaging 0.35m in length (Eogan 1984, 57, fig. 28), does not appear to be contemporary with the tomb but rather with another post-medieval feature, as the stones do not sit on the old ground surface but on post-tomb humus that accumulated after the removal of the mound.
References
Eogan, G. 1968 Excavations at Knowth, Co. Meath, 1962–1965. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 66C, 299–382.
Eogan, G. 1974 Report on the excavations of some passage graves, unprotected inhumation burials and a settlement site at Knowth, Co. Meath. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 74C, 11–112.
Eogan, G. 1984 Excavations at Knowth, vol. 1. Smaller passage tombs, Neolithic occupation and Beaker activity. Dublin.
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
59 Brighton Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6
