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Knowth (; ) is a prehistoric tomb overlooking the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. It comprises a large passage tomb surrounded by 17 smaller tombs, built during the Neolithic Europe around 3200 BC. It contains the largest assemblage of megalithic art in Europe. Knowth is part of the Brú na Bóinne complex, a World Heritage Site that also includes the similar passage tombs of Newgrange and Dowth.
After its initial period of use, Knowth gradually became a ruin, although the area continued to be a site of ritual activity in the Bronze Age. During the early Middle Ages, a royal residence was built on top of the great mound, which became the seat of the Kings of Knowth or Northern Brega. Archaeologist George Eogan led an extensive investigation of the site from the 1960s to 1980s, and parts of the monument were reconstructed.
Many of the motifs are typical: spirals, lozenges and serpentiform. However, the megalithic art at Knowth contains a wide variety of images, such as crescent shapes, and the oldest known illustration of the moon in history. Much of this artwork was carved on the backs of the stones; a type of megalithic art known as hidden art. This suggests all manner of theories as regards the function of megalithic art within the Neolithic community who built the monuments in the Boyne valley. It is possible that they intended the art to be hidden. It is also possible that they simply recycled the stones and reused the other side.
In the late Iron Age and early Christian period, it became a hill fort with encircling ditches and added. Knowth became a habitational site for the first time. Two ditches were dug, one at the base of the mound behind the kerbstones, and the other at the top. At this stage, the entrances to both passages seem to have been discovered. Evidence includes early Christian graffiti on the stones in the eastern chamber, and four names were carved in ogham. It seems it was at this stage that the basin stone from the western chamber was moved in an attempt to remove it and was abandoned in the passage because it got stuck. Knowth became a significant political site and the capital of the Kingdom of Northern Brega.Stout, Geraldine. "Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne". Cork: Cork University Press, 2002. 76.
Knowth was called Cnogba in Old Irish, whose meaning is unclear. This later became Cnoghbha, and finally Cnóbha in modern Irish. In the medieval Triads of Ireland, Úam Chnogba ('caves of Knowth'), Úam Slángæ (probably Rathcoran) and Dearc Fearna (probably Dunmore Cave) are listed as "the three darkest places in Ireland".
After a brief military interlude following the Norman invasion of Ireland, when the Normans used Knowth as a motte in the 12th century,Meehan, pg. 264. the site came into the possession of the Cistercians monks of Mellifont Abbey. It seems that the mound was then again used as a grange or farm. Stone walls were built over the mound, and stone buildings within the walls. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the site was used mainly for agriculture until most of the site was taken over by the state in 1939.
A layer of white quartz stones was found at the entrances to the great mound. The same was found at the entrance to Newgrange, and the archaeologists there concluded that it had made up a white façade or revetment on the front of the monument that had fallen. This white quartz front was reconstructed at Newgrange.O'Kelly, Michael J., and Claire O'Kelly. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art, and Legend. Thames and Hudson, 1982. p.72. However, George Eogan did not believe Neolithic people could have built such a revetment without it collapsing. He suggested that most or all of the white quartz had been spread on the ground, and so it was left on the ground at Knowth. While some archaeologists have supported this decision, other archaeologists argue that both Knowth and Newgrange had white quartz façades, such as Robert Hensey and Elizabeth Shee Twohig in their paper "Facing the cairn at Newgrange" (2017).Hensey, Robert, and Elizabeth Shee Twohig. " Facing the Cairn at Newgrange, Co. Meath". The Journal of Irish Archaeology, vol. 26, 2017, pp. 57–76. They note that the quartz layers at both sites were thickest nearest the kerbstones, suggesting it had slid down the mound rather than being laid flat. They also contend that if the builders quarried and brought the quartz a long distance, they likely would have used it to "maximum effect" as a striking façade, rather than laying it on the ground where it could not be seen as well. Along with archaeologist Carleton Jones,Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Collins, 2007. p.196. Hensey and Twohig note that passage tombs in Brittany have similar near-vertical dry stone fronts, such as Gavrinis and Barnenez.
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