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Knowth
Knowth is a mound being excavated and in Ireland (53o 43'
latitude North,
6o 30' W longitude and 60 m high). It is more than 5000
years
old (build around 3100 CalBC or 2540 bc), and thus older than the
pyramids
in Egypt! This building, which is a big mound of some 84 meters in
diameter,
stands in the Boyne Valley, some 40 km north of Dublin. In this
region two more big mounds are located: Dowth
and Newgrange.
Cross sections of Knowth
The close environment around Knowth is scattered with other megalithic
constructs. Close to the mound the following items, approxamitly build
around the same time, are important (© G. Eogan, 1986):
The mound consisiting of:
The environment around the entrance of the eastern passage looks like this
and around the entrance of the western passage looks like this.
The present outside of the
eastern passage entrance
Two photo's are available of the entrance of the eastern passage:
- 1991:
The entrance can be seen on the left. The black plastic (right-middle)
is covering the chamber. - 1996:
The entrance can be seen on the left. The white boxes
(right-middle)
are covering the chamber. There were reconstructions going on.
Questions
There will be many questions around Knowth, but I am interested in the
following:
Age of Knowth
The age of Knowth is of course not easy and acuratly known. But there
is
some information about a few parts of it (© G. Eogan, 1986):
- charcoal from thin layer under mound: 4795 ± 185 bp
- pit in house: 4852 ± 71 bp
- charcoal from mound: 4405 ± 35 bp
- charcoal from on old ground surface: 4490 ± 60 bp
- fragments of wood at Or75 of eastern passage: 4465 ± 40 bp
- it is a real pity there are no more dates about the turve
layers
in the mound!
- Newgrange seems from the same period as Dowth.
Remember: There is a differance of some 500 years between bc en
CalBC
(3100 CalBC is almost the same as 4490 bp)!
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Major content related changes: January 17, 1997