Knowth Passage Tombs

We traveled about an hour north of Dublin after church today with Justin & Shawna into County Meath. We went to the Neolithic passage tombs in the valley of the River Boyne in Knowth. These are the oldest tombs in Western Europe dating back to about 3000 B.C. At the Knowth site there is one large super tomb mound measuring roughly 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in area surrounded by 17 smaller satellite tombs. The tomb perimeter is lined with 127 curbstones (very large carved megaliths). Of the original megaliths, 3 are missing and 4 are very badly damaged. A lot of artwork is actually carved on backs of the stones. This type of megalithic art is known as hidden art.

They don’t know the exact meaning of the two sided megalith art. It could be they simply wanted to recycle the large stones; others think there may have been some kind of spiritual significance to the people’s remains buried inside. Burial in the main center tomb was reserved for the highest social group… kings, rulers, high priests, etc. The decorative artifacts found in this tomb versus the 7 satellite tombs substantiate this theory.

The entrances on the East and West line up with the sun rise and set on the spring and summer equinoxes. This could show the worship of the sun or sun gods in some capacity. The entrances as they pertain to the uses of a tomb could represent the beginning of life with the rising sun and the ending of life with the setting sun. There were probably celebrations or ceremonies held here on the different equinoxes.

One of the megaliths probably represents the lunar calendar. I’ve tried to show the patterns carved into this stone, but I couldn’t reproduce everything that was on the stone. Our tour guide used this stone to show the potential lunar link. There are actually 29 circular objects carved in to the horizontal oval… could be the 29 days of the lunar calendar.

One of the really cool things our guide did was focus on just how much of what we know about this site is interpretive. There are no written records (aside from the megaliths) to tell us about the meaning and use of this place. At one rock we talked about how many seemingly accurate interpretations could be made on the same carvings.

The weather was a little rainy today. Justin & Shawna both brought rain jackets; Karen and I were under our umbrellas. The rest of the tour was semi-unprepared. It never really rained hard, just kept drizzling most of the day.

On the way home Justin saw this broken down stone structure on top of a hill just off the road. We drove up because it was close. This old structure was just across the street from a few houses and had these cows grazing out front. These old ruins are littered all over the place here. Gives the towns and countryside a sense of age and depth a little more profound than what we see back home in Jersey!

We do miss Hoboken, but we’re happy to be spending time in a place with a history MUCH older than ours!

Here is a link to Knowth on Wikipedia and here is a link to the official Knowth site.