Overview

Knowth, Co. Meath, has been a place of ritual and settlement from the beginning of the Neolithic to the modern era. It is a national monument and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Property: the ancient Brú na Bóinne passage tomb complex that also includes Dowth and Newgrange. This book, based on material from the archaeological excavations published in our seven-volume Excavations at Knowth series, offers a general overview of what Knowth is all about, outlining why it is of interest and importance. In part, it is intended as a guide that people can use to navigate their way around the site, but it is also a book that anyone can read, use and enjoy without being on site and still get a feel for Knowth and how it came to be what it is. Did you know… Knowth and the other passage tombs in the Boyne Valley contain the largest collection of megalithic art in Europe. Knowth has the largest collection at any single location. The number of blue glass beads recovered at Knowth is more than twice the combined total from all other Late Iron Age burial sites in Ireland. Early medieval ‘graffiti’ in the form of ogham and insular inscriptions was carved in the passages of the East and West tombs of the Great Mound at Knowth in the eighth century ad. Knowth has produced the richest archaeological assemblage of material of tenth- to thirteenth-century date from any rural site in Ireland, surpassed only by the urban excavations at Dublin and Waterford. At the time the carved flint macehead was recovered in the East tomb at Knowth in 1982, it was one of only two maceheads to have been found as grave goods in an Irish passage tomb. The other, a partial pestle macehead, had been found in Knowth’s West tomb in July 1967.

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9781802050158

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Helena King is senior editor at the Royal Irish Academy. She was project manager and editor from volume three to volume seven of the Excavations at Knowth series. Kerri Cleary has a PhD in archaeology from University College Cork for her research ‘Irish Bronze Age settlements: spatial organisation and the deposition of material culture’. She was a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, University of Wales, and the editor/author of Archaeological networks: excavations on six gas pipelines in County Cork (Collins Press, 2015). She is now a post-excavation manager with a commercial archaeological company based in England. Elizabeth Shee Twohig was senior lecturer in archaeology at UCC until her retirement in 2007. She was Archaeological Editor of The megalithic art of the passage tombs at Knowth, County Meath. Edel Bhreathnach is a medieval historian with an interest in interdisciplinary studies in archaeology, history and literature. Claire Breen currently works as a senior archaeologist in the Monument Protection Unit of the National Monuments Service and advises on matters relating to the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Property. George Eogan† directed the Knowth excavations for almost 40 years, as part of his research into the passage tomb builders of Ireland and Western Europe. The results of his work in this area were published in an extensive series of books and papers, including the Royal Irish Academy’s seven-volume Excavations at Knowth series. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a member of Seanad Éireann. Patrizia La Piscopia has worked on both commercial and research excavations in Europe and further afield and currently works for the National Monuments Service in the World Heritage Unit. Marie-Luise Theuerkauf is a research associate in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge University. Her doctorate in Early Irish and Old French is from University College Cork. 

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