Home Newgrange Knowth Dowth Hill of Tara Fourknocks Loughcrew Labyrinths Art Works Articles Images Contact

Knowth Kerbstone K66

Kerbstone K66 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 K66 with faint horizontal wavy serpentine lines across the upper and middle face. Knowth Kerbstone K66.

The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath

Book cover: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, County Meath by George Eogan. Excavations at Knowth, Volume 7.

Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath

The complex of passage tombs at Knowth is dated c. 3200-2900 BC, and this volume deals with one of the most significant aspects of the site. It presents a complete catalogue of the 390 recorded carved stones at Knowth, through descriptions, drawings and photographs.

Six main styles of art have been identified and these are discussed, together with the motifs and techniques employed. The Knowth carvings constitute c. 46% of all such art in Ireland, and the volume sets the Knowth art in the context of the other Irish carvings, those in western and northern Britain, and also the somewhat earlier art found on megalithic tombs in Atlantic Europe.

Purchase at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. View or download at Digital Repository of Ireland.

Knowth Stone Age passage tomb

K66 forms part of the ceremonial kerb documented during decades of excavation at Brú na Bóinne by Professor George Eogan and his team. Iron Age people buried their dead near the mound and built a substantial ring-fort settlement beside it, reusing a site that already carried great prestige. Later medieval farmers enclosed the summit within a grange, leaving traces still visible from the air.

The eastern passage and its chamber form a tomb with a total length of 40 metres (131 feet). The eastern chamber has three recesses and a corbelled stone roof of the kind also seen at Newgrange (eastern tomb at Knowth).

Twin passages at Knowth face broadly east and west. The western tomb measures 34 metres (112 feet), including both passage and chamber. Older ideas that they targeted equinox sunrises and sunsets have given way to wider interpretations that allow both solar and lunar observation, and perhaps calendrical counting, among the motives of the builders.

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.

Back to top