As one of Ireland’s foremost heritage landscapes, the great neolithic passage tomb complexes of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, collectively known as Brú na Boinne, attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. The chamber within Newgrange, the most famous of Ireland’s many passage tombs, welcomes a steady stream of tourists who crouch and shuffle single file up the long passage, literally rubbing shoulders with some of the finest megalithic art in Western Europe.
In the 5,000 or so years since it was first constructed, the settling of the mound’s layered bulk had caused many of the uprights lining the passage to lean and tilt inwards, making parts of the passage difficult to negotiate. This was remedied during the excavations and renovations led by Prof. Michael J. O’Kelly between 1962 and 1975 so that today the chamber is readily accessible. At Knowth and Dowth however, the chambers remain largely out of reach for most visitors due to a mixture of structural obstacles, site management and safety concerns.
At Knowth East, the passage orthostats nearest the chamber lean in so heavily that the only route through is on hands and knees along a wooden plank. At the time of the chambers discovery in 1967, the excavator, Prof. George Eogan, actually entered by crawling above the passage orthostats, eventually managing to reach the chamber floor below by lowering himself down along the two metre high portal stones.
The situation is not much different at Dowth North, here the only means of access to the passage is a rather claustrophobic and uncomfortable crawl down a 20 metre long souterrain that was probably constructed between the 9th-11th centuries A.D. The lighting fixtures that had been installed decades ago are now flooded and defunct, the chamber now lies in damp and eerie silence.
With the sophisticated technology and expertise offered by a team from the York Archaeological Trust however, it is hoped that ‘virtual visits’ may be offered in the future through the medium of 3D virtual reconstructions and interactive ‘fly through’ videos of these unique and remarkable sites. The incredible level of detail and realisitic textures captured in this project will also allow researchers, whether within Ireland or abroad, to continue to study and analyse the construction and decoration of the tombs from their desks.
Over several days in May 2012, Dr. David Strange-Walker and Marcus Abbott meticulously scanned, photographed and logged GPS co-ordinates for both Knowth and Dowth in an exciting project organised in conjunction with UCD. Dr. Steve Davis of the School of Archaeology in UCD was one of the main co-ordinators of the project and both he and David were interviewed inside the chamber of Knowth for a piece on RTÉ News, broadcast on the 15th May:
Phillip Bromwell of RTÉ meets the team at Knowth.
I was delighted to be given the opportunity to meet the team and check out the work going on within the chambers of Knowth and Dowth and am very much looking forward to seeing the results of the surveys and scans, particularly the megalithic art. Having firsthand experience of how difficult it can be to record and in some cases even access the sheer number of decorated stones, it will be very interesting to see how technological advances along with the talent of people like Marcus and David can bring this collection of some of Europe’s finest pre-historic carvings to life for everyone to enjoy.
In the meantime, below are some images from my short visits to see the team in action. This was of course a very challenging environment to work in. Not only are there extremely low light levels within the chambers, but due to the scale of the project it was not exactly practical to stop the work in progress and set up some atmospheric environmental portraits, not to mention the need to regularly find the nearest hiding place and sit still for several minutes while the scanner was collecting data! All of the shots therefore were taken handheld at exceptionally low shutter speeds mostly combined with very high ISO settings to increase the sensitivity of the camera just to avoid blurring as Marcus and David went about their various tasks.
For more information on laser scanning and past projects using similar techniques, the wonderful website of the Nottingham Caves Survey project is very much worth a browse. Other exceptional case studies are featured on Marcus Abbott’s site. Special thanks are due to Dr. Steve Davis for arranging access for both myself and the team over the ten day period and particularly to the OPW for their time and co-operation in facilitating the work.
Shadows and Stone Blog 