The present hamlet of Dowth in County…

The present hamlet of Dowth in County Meath, Ireland, is the site of a passage grave of the third millennium, dating from about 2500 to 2000 BCE.

Dowth’s two hundred and seventy-eight foot- (eighty-four meter-) diameter mound covers two funerary chambers designed for communal burial, one with a short entrance passage and a single side chamber, the other with a slightly longer passage and a complex arrangement of side recesses leading from its cruciform end chamber.

At Dowth, the builders decorate several of the megalithic orthostats, or large stone slabs, lining the passage with spiral and lozenge designs.

Another nearby Boyne River Valley passage grave site at the present hamlet of …