A
selection of the 120 or so engraved kerb stones at Knowth. The photo is
taken from beside Site 7, looking southwards towards the west entrance. |
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Knowth has a huge collection of megalithic art engraved on it's stones. Since excavations and conservation finished, it is possible to walk right around the main mound and view the kerbstones. The quality of the stones used varies, some being quite rough, but of the 127 kerbstones, nearly all have been engraved, and several are outstanding examples of neolithic art. The predominant motifs are sinuous curvey lines and circles, and over all they give a strong impression of representing lunar phases and cycles. On several of the stones, a development seems to be occuring, eg: of the moon waxing and waning as it moves through it's cycle.
A pretty complex example of the Knowth art style. Brennan's drawing is superimposed over the photo. According to George Eogan in his 1986 account of Knowth:
One of Brennan's illustrations of Knowth which shows the extent of the decoration on the kerbstones. From his seminal book, The Stars and the Stones. Though it could be said in general that though the Knowth art is less finished than the main Newgrange stones, the basin and mace-head from the east chamber represent some of the finest and most important neolithic artifacts found in western Europe. Several of the stones in the satellites are also engraved.
Engraved kerbstone, possibly a lunar calendar symbol, Knowth. Drawing by Martin Brennan superimposed using Photoshop. Most of the kerbstones of the central mound are engraved and there are several outstanding designs on the stones. A good referance is Martin Brennan's book 'The Stones of Time' which has illustrations of a large portion of the Knowth artwork. The stone illustrated above is a fine example of the kerbstone art. Brennan believes it represents a lunar calendar/sundial. |
Engraved
kerbstones on the west side of the great mound at Knowth. |
As
I have said on other pages on this website, the art at Knowth strikes
me as predominantly of a symbolic astronomical nature, and the best example
is the engraved basin or cauldron to be found in the right-hand recess
of the eastern chamber (above, left). My hypotheses, which takes on bord
the work of Brennan and Stooke, is that Knowth is a specifically lunar
site, and was dedicated to studying the long cycles of the moon which
recurr every 18.6 years. Although archaeology has finally caught up with
some of Brennan's ideas and accepted that the east and west passages have
an equinotical alignment, it is likely that the alignment also focuses
on the equinox full moons. At some stage in the 18.6 year lunar cycle
there would have to occur grand alignments where the rising sun/setting
moon and rising moon/setting sun simultaniously illuminate the main passages.
This seems to be the message engraved in the stone basin, and such a grand
scheme fits the magnificance of the site of Knowth.
'Europe has about 900 stones with megalithic
art from about 50 passage-tombs or related sites, but 400 of these come
from the Brugh na Bóinne tombs and a further 127 from the other
Meath passage-tombs: clearly this region was Europe's leading one for
megalithic art. To summerise the Knowth data we can say:
