George Eogan 1930-2021
George Eogan
was an Irish Archaeologist with particular interest in the Neolithic and Late Bronze Ages. A first degree at University College Dublin was followed
by a doctoral thesis on Irish Late Bronze Age swords at Trinity College Dublin under
Frank Mitchell.
In the 1950's he worked with P.J. Hartnett on the Neolithic passage tomb at
Fourknocks,
and with Seán P. Ó Ríordáin at the Mound of the Hostages on the
Hill of Tara.
He was the Director of the Knowth Research Project and excavated at Knowth for more than 40 years as part of his investigation of the Passage Tomb
builders in Ireland and Western Europe. Professor Eogan was a native of Nobber, Co. Meath in Ireland and has taught and lectured extensively on Irish
archaeology.
Discovering the Dark Wonders of Knowth
Initially there was no evidence that the mound contained tombs. Having begun
to excavate on its northern side, we gradually moved westward and by the end
kerb, but these were suspected at the time to be associated with one of the
nearby small passage-tombs. Leaving the site in August of that year, we had
no definite clue as to the location of an entrance into the mound.
Read more from
The Irish Times - November 1986.
Knowth, A Mecca for Prehistoric Pilgrims
At Knowth, however, the orientation of the great mound suggests that there
could have been two ceremonies at different times, the vernal equinox
on March 20th or 21st, and the autumnal equinox on September 22nd or 23rd.
at these times, the sun rises and sets directly in the east and west,
while day and night have equal lengths. The spring equinox represents
the beginning of the growing season, and the harvest would have been
gathered at the autumnal equinox.
Read more from
The Irish Times - November 1986.
Knowth Excavations
The excavation at Knowth is one of the greatest pieces of archaeology of our
time. On June 18th 2002 it was my privilege to be there with some students forty
years to the day from the start of the excavation. After touring the site,
George Eogan invited us over to a large caravan in the farmyard across the road
to join the anniversary celebrations with Knowth trowellers, workmen and other local folk.
This year I returned to Ireland to see George again, and to find out
more about George Eogan. Why did he choose to spend the greater part of his life
excavating at one site? And what was it like to be the first person in a
thousand years to enter a great Neolithic passage tomb?
Read more from
Current Archaeology - October 2003.
Knowth - Secrets from the grave
Nearly 50 years ago, archaeologists began excavating at Knowth near Newgrange - and the site has yet to give up all its secrets.
'The first day we went in, we went up the passage. When we got in towards the end, the passage became difficult, but there seemed
to be a void at the top and I crawled up with a flashlight and walked until I came to the end of the passage.
Read more from
The Irish Times - 2008.
George Eogan - The Irish Times - June 2012
You've been working at the site, on and off, for 50 years now. Is it slow, deliberate work or have there
been any dramatic Tutankhamun-esque breakthroughs?
There were two such moments, in fact. Once, in 1967, we discovered a small hole
on the western side of the mound. I uttered an exclamation, took my flash lamp
and entered the passage. This, in turn, led to a very impressive chamber. The whole
thing was over 100ft in length. It was very dramatic. The next year, we discovered
a similar chamber on the eastern side. It was about 20ft high and extremely well constructed.
Read more from
The Irish Times - June 2012.
Prof. George Eogan in the eastern tomb in Knowth | Photograph by Ken Williams
Obituary - The Irish Times, 25 November 2021
Prof George Eogan (1930 - 2021), the internationally renowned archaeologist and former professor of archaeology
at University College Dublin (UCD) whose dedicated excavations at
Knowth helped bring international attention
to the monuments of the World Heritage Site at Brú na Boínne has died aged 91.
Dr Pat Wallace, former director of the National Museum said Eogan was "the most influential archaeologist that Ireland has ever produced".
Eogan was a leading scholar of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe with a particular focus on the bronze and gold objects
of these periods. His research into the Neolithic passage tombs of Ireland and western Europe saw him direct
over 40 years of archaeological excavations at the Knowth passage tombs in County Meath.
He was one of the first people in modern times to enter the two great passage tombs of the
Great Mound at Knowth. In a later interview, he said, "to have had the privilege of entering
these tombs is for me one of the great events that one could ever experience". These two tombs
which he and his team discovered in 1967 and 1968 are the longest passage tombs ever found in western Europe.
Eogan went on to discover many other smaller tombs and uncover an open air gallery of ancient
megalithic art, the abundance and quality of which is unparalleled anywhere else in the world.
The decorated
macehead found in the eastern tomb at Knowth - which is on permanent display in
the National Museum - is one of the finest artefacts ever recovered from a Neolithic site.
In 1991, when Knowth opened to the public for the first time, Eogan helped train the
Office of Public Works guides at the site. That same year, he became the founding
chairman of the Discovery Programme, a Heritage Council funded initiative which promotes
archaeological research and education. In 2007, he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Humanities in 2007.
Prestigious bodies
Throughout his long career, he was a member of many prestigious bodies including Academia Europa,
the German Archaeological Institute and the Society of Antiquaries of London. He served on the
Archaeology Committee of the European Science Foundation and the Higher Education Committee of
the Council of Europe. He also served as an adviser of the National Monuments Advisory Council
and the Historic Monuments Council in Northern Ireland. He travelled to conferences, museums
and archaeological sites across Europe.
Always keen that the structures and supports were in place for archaeologists, Eogan was
the first chairperson of the Irish Association of Professional Archaeologists
[now the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland]. He was also, according to Wallace,
"the star witness" in the High Court case which declared the Wood Quay Viking site a
national monument even though Dublin City Council offices were subsequently built on it.
In recognition of his leadership in archaeology, the then taoiseach, Charles J Haughey,
appointed him as an independent senator to Seanad Éireann in 1987, a post he held for two years.
Unpretentious in manner and sociable by nature, he was as comfortable talking about archaeology
to tour bus drivers as he was to academics, diplomats or politicians. His layperson's guide,
Knowth and the Passage Tombs of Ireland (Thames and Hudson, 1986)
reached a wide audience at home and abroad. His other books include Catalogue of Irish Bronze
Swords (1965), The Hoards of the Irish Later Bronze Age (1983), The Accomplished Art: Gold and
Gold-working in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze Age (1994) and the Socketed Bronze Axes in Ireland (2000).
George Eogan grew up in Nobber, Co Meath, where his early interest in archaeology was whetted
by a national school teacher who had a degree in archaeology. He left school following his
Group Cert at Nobber Technical School and worked at various jobs while pursuing his interest
in archaeology by going on outings with the Royal Society of Antiquities. In the early 1950s,
he got work as a labourer on archaeological digs for the National Museum of Ireland.
Paddy Hartnett, an archaeologist working for the National Museum, recognised and encouraged
his enthusiasm and when Hartnett became the first archaeologist employed by Bord Fáilte to
promote archaeological tourism, Eogan became his assistant.
Palestine and Jordan
At this point, Eogan enrolled as a night student at University College Dublin (UCD) to study for a degree in archaeology and English.
Upon his graduation from UCD, he studied for his PhD under Prof
Frank Mitchell
at Trinity College Dublin. As a trainee archaeologist in the early 1960s, Eogan also won a scholarship with the British
School of Archaeology in Jerusalem to work on archaeological sites in Palestine and Jordan.
He worked as a researcher at TCD, the University of Oxford and Queen's University Belfast before being
appointed as a lecturer in archaeology at UCD in 1965. He met his wife to be, Fiona Stephens at UCD when,
as a social science student, she took his classes in archaeology. The couple were married in 1969 and
every year decamped with their young children to spend the summer in the Boyne Valley.
Their son, James Eogan - who is also an archaeologist - remembers how the family stayed
from June to August in Townley Hall alongside international students where his mother cooked
and looked after everyone. These included a stream of visiting artists, poets, politicians and ambassadors.
It enabled his father to concentrate on working on excavations with his team of professional archaeologists, volunteers and local workmen.
George became professor of archaeology at UCD in 1979 and continued in that role until his retirement
in 1995. Popular among students for his passion for archaeology and his wry sense of humour, he mentored
numerous archaeologists who then went on to add to the knowledge of prehistoric Ireland. He cycled
from his home in Rathgar to the Belfield campus in all weathers and was a reluctant retiree.
In fact, he unsuccessfully took a High Court challenge against UCD, seeking the right to continue
working until he was 70. Following his official retirement from UCD, he continued his research interests
for over 20 years. In recognition of his career and achievements, his colleagues edited a book in his honour entitled,
From Megaliths to Metals: Essays in Honour of George Eogan (Oxbow Books, 2004).
An ardent fan of the GAA, Prof Eogan maintained links with his native county and wrote regular
articles for the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society Journal, Riocht na Midhe.
He often said that one of his greatest honours was when he was named Meath Personality
of the Year in 2003. In 2016, President Michael D Higgins officially opened the
George Eogan Cultural and Heritage Centre in Nobber in honour of the town's own archaeologist.
In 2020, Eogan's library was donated to the National Museum and his papers were donated
to the UCD archives. The last monograph (which covers
megalithic art)
on his excavations at Knowth will be published by the Royal Irish Academy in spring 2022.
Knowth and the passage-tombs of Ireland
Knowth and the passage-tombs of Ireland - New Aspects of Antiquity series, 1986.
George Eogan describes in vivid detail the dramatic discovery of not one but two tombs
within the central mound, their narrow passages and decorated chambers hitherto unseen
by man since ancient times.
Built back to back, the tombs, George Eogan argues, were
used for burials and very likely for ceremonies celebrating the rising and setting
sun at spring and autumn equinox. Ritual deposits in the chambers included an
exquisitely carved flint mace-head, hailed by experts as one of the finest pieces
ever to come out of prehistoric Ireland.
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