Knowth Kerbstone K72

Kerbstone K72 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.

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

Description of Kerbstone 72

This stone is extensively carved, but some of the motifs in the upper section are difficult to record due to weathering. Several tool types can be detected: a medium-sized, rounded point, a chisel with a medium-to-large cutting edge, and a narrow-pointed tool; the different tool marks merge in some places. The motifs are almost exclusively curvilinear and are dispersed over most of the surface, with a border of broad, gapped lines picked below the motifs and up the sides.

A row of five anti-clockwise spirals runs across the middle of the stone; four have between five and five-and-a-half turns and the one on the right has six turns. A very small spiral of two turns is picked between the second and third spirals from the left. There are circles and short lines between the sets of spirals on the right, and above them there are further curvilinear motifs, including three more spirals and three sets of double circles, some gapped. Above the spirals on the left there are some wide, picked lines, curves, a lozenge, and an area-picked triangle.

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

Kerbstone K72 is one of the stones encircling the Great Mound at Knowth, recorded in the numbered kerb sequence from K1 to K127. Detailed survey work on the orientation of the two passages has shown that simple equinox sunrise and sunset alignments do not fully explain their layout. The architecture may reflect a broader interest in seasonal and lunar cycles rather than a single astronomical event.

Few Irish passage tombs combine entrance kerb art with a full decorated kerb ring. Knowth belongs to that rare group, along with Newgrange and Dowth South, and includes some of the most elaborate rayed and arc motifs in the country.

One hundred and twenty-four kerbstones still ring the base of the Great Mound, defining an oval plan roughly 80 metres east-west and 95 metres north-south. Many carry carved spirals, lozenges, concentric circles and other abstract motifs that can be viewed on a circuit of the mound (kerbstone gallery).

Roughly half of all Irish passage-tomb art and about a third of the megalithic art of Europe comes from Knowth. The carvings share a distinctive Boyne Valley style that links kerb, passage and chamber stones into a single artistic tradition (Excavations at Knowth Volume 7).