The tomb at Knowth, Co Meath, was a royal burial place for thousands of years. As conservation work nears completion, it is emerging as more elaborately decorated than the bigger tourist attraction of Newgrange. The chamber forms part of the largest passage tomb at Knowth and it will never be open to the public as Newgrange is.
Those entering the passage must crouch for most of the 140-ft journey and then crawl underneath 6-ft stones that make up the passage but have fallen inwards. They must get down on all fours before finally squeezing into the heart of the tomb. Inside the air is cool, still and magical. A stone wall carved with aboriginal-style shapes and symbols forms the backdrop for the large basin the bones would have been cremated in. The basin is blackened and it is known that whoever was cremated here must have been important to our ancestors.
Part of the sacred and spiritual landscape of the Boyne Valley, Newgrange remains the largest tourist attraction in Ireland. Along with Knowth and Dowth, it is a priority for all overseas visitors, attracting upwards of 150,000 a year. As concerns grow about the damage being caused to Newgrange by the large number of visitors, evidence is being unearthed to suggest that Knowth is of equal if not greater importance. It is a few fields from Newgrange but differs in a number of ways.
The large mound at Knowth has two tombs not one. The tombs are back to back and accessible via passages made up of elaborately decorated stones that form the largest international gallery of megalithic art in Europe. Knowth also has 19 smaller satellite tombs.
Prof George Eogan has been directing excavations at Knowth for over 40 years and says evidence has been found for 10 different cultures on the site, which measures about an acre: "This was an area of intensive activity, both creative and otherwise, in prehistoric and passage-tomb periods. Around 3000 BC this was the centre of enormous activity. There was a society here that was able to sustain civilisation over some centuries. The area also suggests that Knowth may pre-date Newgrange." As the invasive work comes to an end and the focus shifts to conservation, experts will concentrate on solving the many questions that Knowth poses. Were the people who were cremated here the royalty of the day or were they the spiritual teachers? The stones did not originate in the Boyne Valley, so how did the architects and artists choose and transport them when stone and metal were the everyday material for tools and weapons? Did astronomy influence the art?
"Preliminary estimates suggest that up to 100 individuals were buried in the big tombs. Maybe they were all kings. I think they represent the aristocratic society at the time. Ritual played an important part in the lives of the passage-tomb people and great and elaborate tombs are features of an elaborate society, an example being the pyramids of the Nile Valley," Prof Eogan said.
He believes that at the time Ireland was not on the periphery of Europe but an integral part of it.
Prof Francis Byrne, of the UCD history department, who has been examining the carvings on the stones, supports this view. "Knowth has the largest gallery of neolithic art in the world and has the largest number and greatest variety of different patterns.
"There are many passage graves in Ireland but there is no art there. The late Prof de Valera believed these megalithic monuments followed the Atlantic seaboard route, i.e. they came up from Africa, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Brittany and then into Ireland and Scotland. The megalithic builders were possibly of African origin and used the Atlantic Ocean routes."
The interpretation of the art is speculative, too. "Some of the patterns are found in Australian aboriginal art, which believed dreams were the passage of the soul outside the body. If you are sceptical, you restrict yourself to the abstract, and these are spirals and zig-zags. Again Knowth has such a great variety."
As the academics ponder, conservation work continues to ensure that the secrets of Knowth are put back just as they were found.