In the River Boyne Valley of Ireland, some eight kilometers west of Drogheda Knowth is a Neolithic passageway burial and an antique landmark of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site. It is the greatest passage grave of the Brú na Bóinne complex. Site 1 is a sizable mound, and there are also 17 other smaller satellite graves. The mound, which is around a hectare in size and 67 metres in diameter, is about 12 metres high. It has two tunnels running east-west with 127 kerbstones, three of which are not found and four of which are severely damaged. The enormous mound is thought to have been created around 3200 BC. The corridors lead to different crypts and are autonomous of one another. The eastern entrance leads to a cruciform chamber that resembles Newgrange and has three niches and basin stones that were used to hold the cremated remains of the dead. As is customary with Irish passage burials of this kind, the right-hand recess is larger and more ornately embellished with megalithic art than the rest. An indistinct chamber that is divided from the passage by a sill stone is where the western passage finishes. A basin stone that was later removed and is currently situated about two-thirds of the distance down the tunnel appears to have also been inside the chamber. Over 200 adorned stones were discovered during explorations, accounting for more than a third of all megalithic art in Western Europe. A large portion of the artwork is on the kerbstones, especially near the entrances to the tunnels. Numerous motifs, including spirals, lozenges, and serpentine-form shapes, are common. However, a vast range of imagery, including crescent shapes and the oldest known depiction of the moon in history, may be found in the megalithic sculpture at Knowth. Many of these works of art were hidden art, or megalithic art that was engraved on the backs of the stones. This raises a wide range of possibilities about how the Neolithic society that erected the monuments in the Boyne valley used megalithic art. They might have wanted the art to be obscured. It is also possible that they just reused the opposite side of the stones after being reconditioned. On the location, there is some proof of late Neolithic and Bronze Age activity. The majority of this results from the presence of a grooved ware timber circle close to the eastern passage-entrance. The large mound at Knowth may have been abandoned by the time this was used as a ritual or holy space, according to archaeological findings. Numerous votive gifts discovered near and around the nearby timbers that made up the circle serve as proof of ceremony. It evolved into a hill-fortification with enclosing ditches and souterrains in the latter Iron Age. For the first time, Knowth was a place where people could live. Later, Knowth rose to prominence as a political centre and the seat of government for the Kingdom of Northern Brega.
[Information and Image Credit : Knowth, Wikipedia] [Image :: Primary mound and auxiliary mounds at Knowth]
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