Knowth Kerbstone K127
Kerbstone K127 is one of the 127 kerbstones numbered in Professor George Eogan's record of the Knowth monument. It is located on the northern side of the great passage tomb mound.
Knowth Kerbstone K127 - Photo by Ken Williams from Excavations at Knowth Volume 7.
The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
Description of Kerbstone 127
Main face: there are dispersed pickmarks on the upper-right of the face.
Top face: There is a clockwise spiral of five turns picked towards the right end of the stone. Left of this is an arc, a possible lozenge, and a V motif. There are possible pickmarks to the right of the spiral.
Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
The complex of passage tombs at Knowth is dated c. 3200–2900 BC, and this volume deals with one of the most significant aspects of the site. It presents a complete catalogue of the 390 recorded carved stones at Knowth, through descriptions, drawings and photographs.
Six main styles of art have been identified and these are discussed, together with the motifs and techniques employed. The Knowth carvings constitute c. 46% of all such art in Ireland, and the volume sets the Knowth art in the context of the other Irish carvings, those in western and northern Britain, and also the somewhat earlier art found on megalithic tombs in Atlantic Europe.
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Knowth Stone Age passage tomb
Among the surviving kerbstones at Knowth, K127 contributes to the largest open-air gallery of Neolithic art in western Europe. The eastern passage runs for about forty metres, the longest known megalithic passage in western Europe. It opens eastward into a cruciform chamber with three recesses and a corbelled stone roof of the kind also seen at Newgrange (eastern tomb at Knowth).
Twin passages at Knowth face broadly east and west. Older ideas that they targeted equinox sunrises and sunsets have given way to wider interpretations that allow both solar and lunar observation, and perhaps calendrical counting, among the motives of the builders.
The passage tombs of the Boyne were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth together represent one of the richest prehistoric landscapes in Europe, valued for their age, scale and megalithic art.
The central cairn is accompanied by nineteen satellite mounds. Knowth holds roughly a quarter of all recorded megalithic art in western Europe, with two major passages and decades of scientific excavation behind the story told today.