Knowth Kerbstone K77
Kerbstone K77 is one of the 127 kerbstones numbered in Professor George Eogan's record of the Knowth monument. It is located on the north-western side of the great passage tomb mound.
Knowth Kerbstone K77 | Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
Description of Kerbstone 77
On the left of the main face there is a clockwise spiral of four turns; the pickmarks here are elongated and run at an angle, mostly downwards from lefr to right, and sometimes horizontally. Below this on the right is a downward opening U-motif, enclosing a short, finely picked zigzag/serpentiform.
Above and to the right of the spiral is another single U-motif, opening upwards. To the right is a large circular motif, with a wide, ribbon-like, C-motif enclosing another, narrower, C-motif, some arcs and a central gapped circle. To its upper-right is a double loop, with an irregular wavy line below it, and below that a solidly picked shape with wavy lines running out from each corner.
To the right are some shallow patches of area-picking made with a medium-sized, rounded point, and right of this, and party overlapping with one of the area-picked patches, is a large C-motif enclosing a circle with a small gap opening to the right. Along the right edge of the stone there are some picked wavy lines. Most of the picking is done with a medium-sized, rounded point.
Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
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Knowth Stone Age passage tomb
Stone K77 belongs to the kerb ring that defines the oval footprint of the Knowth passage tomb in the Boyne Valley. Medieval texts and local folklore associate Knowth with the royal cemetery of the Boyne and with ancestral powers of the land. The concentration of labour required to build Brú na Bóinne implies strong leadership and shared belief among Neolithic communities.
Later seasons of excavation exposed nineteen smaller tombs clustered around the main mound, along with pottery, house foundations and flint tools from an earlier Neolithic phase of settlement in the area, perhaps dating to around 4000 BC.
Kerbstone 77 | Scan by the Discovery programme.
Inside the eastern tomb, the carved granite basin in the right-hand recess is among the finest Neolithic artefacts in Ireland. The block is so massive that the chamber appears to have been constructed around the basin rather than the reverse.
Activity at Knowth did not end with the Neolithic builders. The mound remained important through the Bronze Age and Iron Age, and was reused in medieval times, showing how long the monument kept its place in the life and memory of the Boyne Valley.