Knowth

Knowth, Co. Meath, has been a place of ritual and settlement from the beginning of the Neolithic to the modern era. It is a national monument and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Property: the ancient Bru na Boinne passage tomb complex that also includes Dowth and Newgrange. This book, based on material from the archaeological excavations published in our seven-volume Excavations at Knowth series, offers a general overview of what Knowth is all about, outlining why it is of interest and importance. In part, it is intended as a guide that people can use to navigate their way around the site, but it is also a book that anyone can read, use and enjoy without being on site and still get a feel for Knowth and how it came to be what it is. Did you know Knowth and the other passage tombs in the Boyne Valley contain the largest collection of megalithic art in Europe. Knowth has the largest collection at any single location. The number of blue glass beads recovered at Knowth is more than twice the combined total from all other Late Iron Age burial sites in Ireland. Early medieval graffiti in the form of ogham and insular inscriptions was carved in the passages of the East and West tombs of the Great Mound at Knowth in the eighth century ad. Knowth has produced the richest archaeological assemblage of material of tenth- to thirteenth-century date from any rural site in Ireland, surpassed only by the urban excavations at Dublin and Waterford. At the time the carved flint macehead was recovered in the East tomb at Knowth in 1982, it was one of only two maceheads to have been found as grave goods in an Irish passage tomb. The other, a partial pestle macehead, had been found in Knowth s West tomb in July 1967.