Knowth Kerbstone K41
Kerbstone K41 is one of the 127 kerbstones numbered in Professor George Eogan's record of the Knowth monument. It is located on the southern side of the great passage tomb mound.
Knowth Kerbstone K41.
Megalithic Art at end of Kerbstone 41.
The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
Description of Kerbstone 41
On the lower-middle and the right of the stone there is a series of angular, incised motifs, comprising several zigzags; a panel of three horizontal zigzags; four lozenges, of which two are quartered; a set of four chevrons; a crude circle; and a range of short, angular lines.
On the right end of the stone there is an incised lozenge, some chevrons and boxed arcs. Picked motifs comprise a set of three gapped, concentric circles at the top-left; a row of four U-motifs runs against the top edge of the stone and may originally have formed a serpentiform.
At the right end of the stone, above the incised motifs, a number of motifs are picked with a small, rounded point-these comprise a clockwise spiral of three turns, a small circle, a zigzag, and some lines, and on the right is a small, clockwise spiral enclosed in a zigzag frame.
Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
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Knowth Stone Age passage tomb
Stone K41 belongs to the kerb ring that defines the oval footprint of the Knowth passage tomb in the Boyne Valley. The passage tombs of the Boyne were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth together represent one of the richest prehistoric landscapes in Europe, valued for their age, scale and megalithic art.
The central cairn is accompanied by eighteen satellite mounds. Knowth holds roughly a quarter of all recorded megalithic art in western Europe, with two major passages and decades of scientific excavation behind the story told today.
Knowth was raised more than five thousand years ago in the Neolithic period, around 3200 BC, when established farming communities were shaping the Boyne Valley. Together with Newgrange and Dowth, it forms the heart of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage landscape.
Originally 127 kerbstones encircled the monument; three are now missing. Most of the survivors bear panels of curvilinear and circular ornament. Some compositions suggest careful observation of lunar rhythms, a theme that runs through much of the art at Knowth.