This is the final book in a series of seven monographs published by the Royal Irish Academy documenting the results of the archaeological excavations and related research undertaken at Knowth, Co. Meath, and it deals with one of the most significant aspects of the archaeological record there—the megalithic art carvings from the passage tomb cemetery constructed at Knowth in the Middle Neolithic. Approximately 45% of the total of all passage-tomb-style carved stones in Ireland occur at Knowth.
The objective of this volume is to present an inventory of the Knowth carvings by means of descriptions, drawings and photographs, together with an analysis of the carvings and an examination of their context. The six main styles of megalithic art that have been identified at Knowth are presented: Standard Megalithic Art, Recycled Art, Ribbon-line Art, Large-scale Kerbstone Art, Amorphous Close Area-picking, and Dispersed Picking. The varied techniques used to create the carvings in these styles are described, and the motifs represented are discussed. The occurrence of passage tomb art beyond Knowth—in the nearby monuments of Brugh na Bóinne, including Newgrange and Dowth; elsewhere in Ireland beyond the Boyne Valley; in Britain, particularly in the Orkney Islands and north-east Scotland; and in western France and Iberia—is also discussed.
Irish megalithic art presents as geometric motifs. Many interpretations have been proposed for these motifs over the years. We cannot understand them as having a specific meaning, but the fact that a number of passage tombs in Ireland are deliberately aligned on astronomical events lends support to the proposal that some of the carvings at these tombs represent heavenly bodies. Even if we cannot understand the meaning of the carvings, we can now disentangle the complex sequence of 5,000-year-old art styles at Knowth that constituted part of the suite of ritual practices followed by the people of the passage tombs in Ireland. We can also identify some connections between the Knowth art, its associated artefacts and some aspects of elements of the art and artefacts found in Atlantic Europe more widely.
The Catalogue element of this volume provides a complete description of each carved stone at Knowth together with a line drawing at a scale of 1 : 20 and, with few exceptions, one or more photographs.