Capturing the world with Photography, Painting and Drawing

European passage tombs ( Knockroe, county Kilkenny and Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland )

Knockroe passage tomb

Knockroe, county Kilkenny

Knockroe http://www.megalithicireland.com/Knockroe%20Passage%20Tomb.html

kilmartin 0366

Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland

Kilmartin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilmartin_Glen

A link through time

These two mystical European locations stand two hundred and fifteen miles apart, Knockroe is in county Kilkenny republic of Ireland and the other, Kilmartin is in Argyll, Scotland, about 15 miles south of Oban.

Knockroe panel

kilmartin 0361

The reason I displaying these images in the same post is simply to highlight something that only occurred to me when one year I happened to visit them only weeks apart. The fact is you could view these two sites individually and study them by themselves all you like, however you would be missing something very important!

Knockroe Markings

The people’s who created these sites shared the same time period and clearly the same beliefs and culture. They lived in Europe both in Ireland and Scotland located in the Geographical British Isles; however some 5500 years ago they knew nothing of recent nations and nationalism , of national borders or even the concept of a European nation.

Knockroe scetch

Both monuments are passage tombs, placed for their dead to be remembered, they both also contain elements for marking the passing of the year and its seasons, by measuring the movement of the sun and the moon.

The structures in these places along with the cultural function they served is identical, to me this shows that these people traveled the seas and not only shared goods and beliefs they in fact where the same peoples. They did not just get on with each other through trade they were each other as brother and sister, mother and father, family and friends.

When they knew nothing of modern boundaries and divisions, what else could they be?

These same people who traveled from one place to another in order to expand their options and abilities did not in any shape or form see themselves as English or Scottish or Irish they were family to each other and nothing more or less!

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