The term ‘Later Bronze Age’ is being used in this paper to cover that period of the Bronze Age in Ireland that started around 1200 B.C. and continued on until supplanted by iron-using cultures during the second half of the first millennium B.C. This term provides a means of escaping from the nomenclature that is applied to the period covering the last two centuries of the second millennium B.C. and the beginning of the first millennium B.C., a phase considered by some as a late Middle Bronze Age and by others as an early Late Bronze Age. Here both terms are being avoided and the period is called the ‘Bishopsland Phase’. This is followed by the ‘Roscommon Phase’ of roughly the 9th and a large part of the 8th centuries B.C. Finally comes the ‘Dowris Phase’. It is hoped that this new terminology will allow the Irish material to be more readily incorporated in any future overall scheme for the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. The Middle Bronze Age in Ireland is here restricted to cover approximately the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.
Recent research at the great Irish passage tomb of Knowth has revealed new decorated stones, which were apparently recycled from an earlier tomb. Here, George Eogan describes the finds and discusses the implication of an early phase of tomb building pre-dating the major passage tombs of the Boyne Valley.
Megalithic art is associated with passage tombs in Atlantic Europe. But it is not found in all areas, rather it has a restricted distribution. In those areas where it occurs it is very often associated with large and, therefore, prestigious tombs. These tombs have a confined distribution within defined areas. It can be argued that such areas indicate tribal regions within which elite societies existed and where cohesion was provided by a leader, possibly in the form of a chief.
The site (National Grid Reference 3X584622) stands on a westward spur of the Penn Beacon ridge near the southern edge of Dartmoor. As is common throughout the moor the underlying rock is granite and in the neighbourhood of Cholwichtown this has altered to ‘china’ clay. There are a number of outcrops, but in most places the granite has a light covering of soil on which a thin layer of black raw humus, peat-like in appearance, has formed. This now produces coarse grass. From the evidence provided by the small dumps of upcast at socket no. 72 it appears that only a very thin layer of humus, about an inch in thickness, covered the soil at that point when the monument was constructed.Excavation has shown that the structure consisted of an alignment 235 yards long and having originally at least ninety-one uprights and a circle 16 feet in diameter that originally had eight orthostats. Dr Simmons has shown (Appendix) that the monument was built in a clearing, then either grassland or heathland, among the woodland and scrub, but as he points out the pollen analysis does not give any indication of date: it is not known if these clearances were made by the people who constructed the alignment and circle or if the structure was built on land cleared at an earlier date.The monument is not situated in a conspicuous position but, nevertheless, commands a reasonably extensive view, especially towards the south and south-west.
accounts have already been published in ANTIQUITY. A full report of thefirst four seasons' work with a historical note by Professor F. r. Byrne was published in volume LXVI of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (c, 1968, 249-dfOO) to which reference should be made for statements not otherwise documented in this present article. The Evgan excavations have established that Knowth is a cemetery of Passage Graves, with a large number of small tombs a r v u d the main tumulus (Site I ) . The 1968 excavations revealed an entirely unknown Passage Grave with a jine corbelled roof in the main mound. Eogan here describes briefly the 1968 excavations." See pp. 8-14] [Photos (d) Li1 O'Connor (b) B. Mason (below). Interiop of stone basin in right-hand recess. The deposit is an accumulation of silt P L A T E I V (opposite PL. v). Corbelled roof of the 1968 tomb: 5.70 m. abore the present froor level See p p . 8-14] [Photos: J. Banibur?, National Slonuments Branch, b>permission Commlssioners of Public \Vorks in I r e l m d Frontispiece: The Excavations at Knowth, Co. Meath, 1968 View of passage looking inwards towards chamber, and slightly more than 8 m. from it (see pp. 8-r4; photo:J. Bambury)
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