Knowth Kerbstone K52
Kerbstone K52 is one of the 127 kerbstones numbered in Professor George Eogan's record of the Knowth monument. It is located on the south-western side of the great passage tomb mound.
Knowth Kerbstone K52.
The megalithic art of the passage tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
Description of Kerbstone 52
Stage 1 comprises a central, finely picked, double anti-clockwise spiral of two-and-a-half turns. This seems to be overlaid in Stage 2 by the central elements of a row of arcs that runs across the stone. Above these is a long, horizontal serpentiform, and above that a row of circles is picked just below the top edge of the stone. The four circles on the left are single and quite wide, and the three on the right are double.
There are also a number of penannular circles along the right edge, one of which links to a deeply picked, short, horizontal zigzag. Some further motifs may be noted under the row of penannular circles, including an oval, a possible spiral, and an irregular motif at the left end of the zigzag. These motifs are very lightly picked with a fine point, sometimes drawn along to make a short, sharp line, as are parts of the zigzag, and they might therefore belong to Stage 1, like the spiral. The majority of the motifs are picked with a medium-sized, rounded point.
Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
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Knowth Kerbstone K52.
Late October morning sun creeping across kerbstone 52 - Photo by Dessie McCarron.
Knowth Kerbstone 52 - Photo by Ailbhe, Brú na Bóinne.
Knowth Stone Age passage tomb
Kerbstone K52 is one of the stones encircling the Great Mound at Knowth, recorded in the numbered kerb sequence from K1 to K127. Activity at Knowth did not end with the Neolithic builders. The mound remained important through the Bronze Age and Iron Age, and was reused in medieval times, showing how long the monument kept its place in the life and memory of the Boyne Valley.
Newgrange draws the largest crowds, yet Knowth is unmatched for the quantity and variety of its sculpture, the scale of the mound and the depth of its archaeological record, with occupation traces spanning from the Stone Age into recent centuries at the ancient site of Cnogba.
Scan of Knowth Kerbstone 52 | The Discovery Programme.
The kerb carvings are abstract rather than figurative, yet they are far from random. Repeated circles, crescents and flowing lines point to a shared symbolic world among the Boyne Valley builders, one that modern visitors can still sense when walking the numbered stones around the mound.
No other site preserves so much carved Neolithic stonework in one place. After conservation of the mound, visitors on guided tours can walk the full kerb circuit and see one of the greatest open-air collections of prehistoric art in Ireland.