AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

Meath
of the earlier phase and included many items of personal adornment. These included a range
of metal ringed and stick pins dating between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, bone pins,
belt buckles, bone combs and jet bracelets. Functional items were represented by iron knives,
needles, seven quern stone fragments, grindstones, a horse bridle and flint scrapers. Animal
bone was uncovered from a wide variety of contexts including house floors, souterrains,
occupational layers, and from within the hearths.
Contact with Scandinavian Dublin was evident by the presence of weighing scales and an
eleventh-century Hiberno-Scandinavian bracelet. The rounded corners on the rectangular
houses at Knowth also indicate Scandinavian building-style influences. The final early
medieval phase ended sometime during the eleventh century. Annalistic references indicate
that Knowth was granted to the Cistercian Abbey during the middle twelfth century but no
archaeological evidence for this was uncovered. Modification of the south-eastern side of the
mound occurred during the late-twelfth century as two stone-lined ditches and a bastion were
constructed by the Anglo-Normans.
Fig. 256: Plan of early medieval phases at Knowth, Co. Meath (after McCormick & Murray
2007, 5).
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