The Boyne Valley and its Megalithic Monuments July 15-16, 1999:
The 'Big Mamas' of Megalithic Tombs are in the Boyne Valley.
About an hour north of Dublin, the trinity of Dowth, Knowth and
Newgrange contain 80% of the megalithic art in Ireland and are
by far the largest passage tombs known. Dowth is closed to the
public because of the excavations going on there, and Knowth is
only open on the outside because the passageways have collapsed
due to the millennia of construction on the hill by by Bronze
Age Kings, Saxons, Normans, and Monks. The complex at Knowth is
a series of passage graves. The giant one in the center is
unique in that it contains two passages, each over a hundred
feet long. The kerb stones which the builders put in place to
hold the mound up were decorated (sometimes on both sides) with
these non-linear designs. Is this squiggle a snake (there are
none in Ireland, but the ancient Irish may well have known of
them) or a river? Or something else? If you've got an idea you
can e-mail us, we'd lo