Knowth Kerbstone K86
Kerbstone K86 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.
Kerbstone K86 | Photo by Dessie McCarron.
The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
Description of Kerbstone 86
A set of four boxed lozenges is incised in the lower-left quadrant of the stone. This is not directly overlaid by the picked motifs, but the incised lines are interrupted by some dispersed pickmarks, so it seems likely that the picked motifs were applied at a later stage than the incised motifs. The picked carvings on this stone are very distinctive, and comprise four large, symmetrically placed crescent or C-shaped motifs.
They are separated by a horizontal line, which has a small dot at each end. A dot is also placed just above and below the line, between the C motifs. The two upper Cs are picked with a medium-sized, rounded point, and they are weathered along the top of the stone. The picking of part of the horizontal line and of the lower Cs is very closely set, making a continuous ribbon. A slightly narrower picked line frames the Cs but is missing at the top-left where the stone is fractured, and along the top where it may have been lost through weathering.
Excavations at Knowth Volume 7: The Megalithic Art of the Passage Tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath
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Knowth Kerbstone K86.
Knowth Stone Age passage tomb
K86 forms part of the ceremonial kerb documented during decades of excavation at Brú na Bóinne by Professor George Eogan and his team. 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.
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.
Knowth Kerbstone K86.
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.
Newgrange draws the largest crowds, yet Knowth is unmatched for the quantity and variety of its sculpture, the scale of the mound and the depth of its archaeological record, with occupation traces spanning from the Stone Age into recent centuries at the ancient site of Cnogba.