Ceremonial stone setting

The National Monuments Service's description

Four areas with stone settings were established outside the kerb of Tomb 1C, the most elaborate being outside the entrances to the E and W tombs but another is just SE of the mound. Two small related areas are adjacent to Tomb 16, and a fifth setting is associated with Tomb 4. Outside the entrance to Tomb 1C West is a line (L c. 23m N-S) of 16 irregularly spaced (0.2-4m) stones positioned 1.2-4m from the kerb, including one standing stone and other exotic, water-rolled boulders. The line delimits an area around the entrance where there are four small stone settings, but two settings and some boulders W of the line and situated between Tombs 6 and 8, are also considered part of the complex.

Stone 9 in the delimiting line is a standing stone of quartz sandstone with a rectangular cross-section (dims 0.37m x 0.35m; total H 2.56m) placed opposite the entrance stone (K 74) of the tomb. It has highly polished surfaces, some with faint motifs. The stone has been re-erected in its socket and, although the passage of Tomb 1C West is not aligned precisely on the setting sun at the equinox, the shadow of the standing stone at sunset on those occasions does cross the art of the entrance kerbstone like the pointer of a gnomon. A limestone piece with a natural solution hole located W of the delimiting line provides the third point in an alignment with the standing stone and the vertical groove in the entrance kerbstone. A perfectly finished conical sandstone object with a circular cross-section (L 25.5cm; max. diam. 3.9cm) was found beside the standing stone. It is decorated with three incised U-shaped grooves and one oval one near the base, but its most striking feature is a deeply incised groove running most of its length with ten penannular incised grooves dependant from it. However, the tip (L 7cm) is free of decoration(Eogan and Cleary 2017, 444-6).

Six stone settings (dims 1.2m to 2.25m x 1.8m) defined by contiguous stones set on edge can be circular or oval but two of them are U-shaped, abutting kerbstones of the great mound, and all seem to have been originally designed with openings. The interior of the settings are devoid of exotic stones, although most are in an area (max. dims 16m N-S; c. 7m E-W) with a spread of such material, especially quartz, outside the entrance to Tomb 1C West. However, this spread is not confined by the line of exotic stones or any other boundary. These features are conserved outside the entrance to Tomb 1C West. (Eogan and Cleary 2017, 216-32)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 21 September 2020

See the attached illustration:
_1 Plan of ceremonial stone setting, from Knowth 6, Fig. 2:51
_2 Drawing of idol from Knowth 6, Fig: 6, 11

References

Eogan, G. and Cleary, K. 2017 Excavations at Knowth 6: The Passage Tomb Archaeology of the Great Mound at Knowth. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin