Sun-Moon Conjunction Symbols Found In Knowth's Neolithic Passage Mound
Today a Facebook Memory of a 2018 post about what I have identified as a sun-moon conjunction symbol carved into the outer perimeter of Knowth's stone basin came up. I reshared the post on Facebook, and decided to share it here too. For the time being I am sharing it as is with some additional images, but I may update this post in the coming days.
Work In Progress, this will be edited:
Less than a month after I posted my hypothesis that the stone basin found in Knowth's right inner chamber has a sun-moon conjunction symbol, and possibly even a form of winged sun symbol, carved into its outer perimeter, the Royal Irish Academy released six books on Excavations at Knowth via the Digital Repository of Ireland to the public free of charge.
The reason for providing the public with free access to these six volumes in electronic form was stated as follows:
The Academy’s aim is to spark new research on Knowth and to help those researching the newly discovered sites in the Unesco World Heritage site of Brú na Bóinne.
When I scrolled down the PDF file of volume 6 to page 74, I was confronted by a drawing of a stone "urn" that was found in a small tomb at Knowth in the early 1700s (probably 1713 or so) by one Sir Thomas Molyneux, which has a sun-moon conjunction symbol depicted on it that is very similar to what I identify as a sun-moon conjunction symbol on Knowth's stone basin.
Here is Sir Thomas Molyneux's description of the "urn":
"The urn itself was one great heavy stone, of an oblong round figure, somewhat of the shape of the upper part of a man’s skull, but five or six times as large; ’twas of a sandy greet like freestone, but much coarser and harder; its length about sixteen inches [0.40m], about twelve [0.30m] in breadth, and eleven [0.28m] in height, its cavity but shallow, not above five inches [0.13m] deep, rudely hollowed by cutting out some part of the stone, in which was found loose fragments of burnt bones: they seem to have taken pains in adorning the outside with rude lines and carving, yet the work shows more the labour than skill of the artist, who has graved five furrows one above another, round the upper part of the urn; and in the middle of each side, and at each end, rude figures, expressing, as I take it, the great luminaries of the world, the sun and moon: and I’m the more inclin’d to favour this conjecture, because ’tis sure, these two celestial bodies were very religiously adored by all of the northern nations in time of paganism."
His drawing is reproduced below with a colour photograph of Knowth's stone basin below it for comparison purposes.
Here is a pertinent quote from the Royal Irish Academy's publication:
"The basin stone that Molyneux records is all the more interesting as it undoubtedly resembles the decorated basin stone in the right-hand recess of Tomb 1B East (Eogan 1984, 168; see Section 2.3.2; Plate 2:12), which assists in confirming its provenance at Knowth. Although they differ in size and the Molyneux basin lacks the elaborate decoration on the inner surface of the Tomb 1B East basin, the five ‘furrows’ and one of the four ‘rude figures’ described by Molyneux (Fig. 1.4a) resemble the external decoration on the Tomb 1B East basin (see Plate 2:26). Molyneux would, of course, have been unaware of the presence of the eastern tomb, as there is neither historical reference nor stratigraphical/artefactual evidence suggesting that the tombs under the large mound at Knowth had been entered since Early Christian times until their rediscovery in the late 1960s."
The resemblance of the sun-moon conjunction symbol depicted in Molyneux's drawing (Fig. 1.4b) to what I am saying is almost certainly a sun-moon conjunction symbol on the external decoration on the Tomb 1B East basin should be obvious. This is a clear indication that solar eclipses played a role in inspiring the religious beliefs and practices of the prehistoric Irish people who built the passage tomb at Knowth, and the other Boyne Valley passage tombs.
Update: I am embedding a "low production values" video of my interpretation of Knowth's stone basin that I made almost two years ago in October 2020. It did not exist at the time I made the Facebook post.
Work In Progress, this will be edited:
Less than a month after I posted my hypothesis that the stone basin found in Knowth's right inner chamber has a sun-moon conjunction symbol, and possibly even a form of winged sun symbol, carved into its outer perimeter, the Royal Irish Academy released six books on Excavations at Knowth via the Digital Repository of Ireland to the public free of charge.
The reason for providing the public with free access to these six volumes in electronic form was stated as follows:
The Academy’s aim is to spark new research on Knowth and to help those researching the newly discovered sites in the Unesco World Heritage site of Brú na Bóinne.
When I scrolled down the PDF file of volume 6 to page 74, I was confronted by a drawing of a stone "urn" that was found in a small tomb at Knowth in the early 1700s (probably 1713 or so) by one Sir Thomas Molyneux, which has a sun-moon conjunction symbol depicted on it that is very similar to what I identify as a sun-moon conjunction symbol on Knowth's stone basin.
Here is Sir Thomas Molyneux's description of the "urn":
"The urn itself was one great heavy stone, of an oblong round figure, somewhat of the shape of the upper part of a man’s skull, but five or six times as large; ’twas of a sandy greet like freestone, but much coarser and harder; its length about sixteen inches [0.40m], about twelve [0.30m] in breadth, and eleven [0.28m] in height, its cavity but shallow, not above five inches [0.13m] deep, rudely hollowed by cutting out some part of the stone, in which was found loose fragments of burnt bones: they seem to have taken pains in adorning the outside with rude lines and carving, yet the work shows more the labour than skill of the artist, who has graved five furrows one above another, round the upper part of the urn; and in the middle of each side, and at each end, rude figures, expressing, as I take it, the great luminaries of the world, the sun and moon: and I’m the more inclin’d to favour this conjecture, because ’tis sure, these two celestial bodies were very religiously adored by all of the northern nations in time of paganism."
His drawing is reproduced below with a colour photograph of Knowth's stone basin below it for comparison purposes.
Here is a pertinent quote from the Royal Irish Academy's publication:
"The basin stone that Molyneux records is all the more interesting as it undoubtedly resembles the decorated basin stone in the right-hand recess of Tomb 1B East (Eogan 1984, 168; see Section 2.3.2; Plate 2:12), which assists in confirming its provenance at Knowth. Although they differ in size and the Molyneux basin lacks the elaborate decoration on the inner surface of the Tomb 1B East basin, the five ‘furrows’ and one of the four ‘rude figures’ described by Molyneux (Fig. 1.4a) resemble the external decoration on the Tomb 1B East basin (see Plate 2:26). Molyneux would, of course, have been unaware of the presence of the eastern tomb, as there is neither historical reference nor stratigraphical/artefactual evidence suggesting that the tombs under the large mound at Knowth had been entered since Early Christian times until their rediscovery in the late 1960s."
The resemblance of the sun-moon conjunction symbol depicted in Molyneux's drawing (Fig. 1.4b) to what I am saying is almost certainly a sun-moon conjunction symbol on the external decoration on the Tomb 1B East basin should be obvious. This is a clear indication that solar eclipses played a role in inspiring the religious beliefs and practices of the prehistoric Irish people who built the passage tomb at Knowth, and the other Boyne Valley passage tombs.
Update: I am embedding a "low production values" video of my interpretation of Knowth's stone basin that I made almost two years ago in October 2020. It did not exist at the time I made the Facebook post.
Update: I am embedding a "low production values" video of my interpretation of Knowth's stone basin that I made almost two years ago in October 2020. It did not exist at the time I made the Facebook post.
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