Prof George Eogan (1930 - 2021)

Obituary - The Irish Times, 25 November 2021

Prof George Eogan (1930 - 2021), the internationally renowned archaeologist and former professor of archaeology at University College Dublin (UCD) whose dedicated excavations at Knowth helped bring international attention to the monuments of the World Heritage Site at Brú na Bóinne has died aged 91.

Professor George Eogan pictured at the Neolithic passage tombs of Knowth. Photograph by David Sleator, The Irish Times

Dr Pat Wallace, former director of the National Museum said Eogan was "the most influential archaeologist that Ireland has ever produced".

Eogan was a leading scholar of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe with a particular focus on the bronze and gold objects of these periods. His research into the Neolithic passage tombs of Ireland and western Europe saw him direct over 40 years of archaeological excavations at the Knowth passage tombs in County Meath.

He was one of the first people in modern times to enter the two great passage tombs of the Great Mound at Knowth. In a later interview, he said, "to have had the privilege of entering these tombs is for me one of the great events that one could ever experience". These two tombs which he and his team discovered in 1967 and 1968 are the longest passage tombs ever found in western Europe.

Eogan went on to discover many other smaller tombs and uncover an open air gallery of ancient megalithic art, the abundance and quality of which is unparalleled anywhere else in the world. The decorated macehead found in the eastern tomb at Knowth - which is on permanent display in the National Museum - is one of the finest artefacts ever recovered from a Neolithic site.

In 1991, when Knowth opened to the public for the first time, Eogan helped train the Office of Public Works guides at the site. That same year, he became the founding chairman of the Discovery Programme, a Heritage Council funded initiative which promotes archaeological research and education. In 2007, he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Humanities in 2007.

John Rock (left) and George Eogan (right) at the opening of the Eastern tomb at Knowth in August 1969

Prestigious bodies

Throughout his long career, he was a member of many prestigious bodies including Academia Europa, the German Archaeological Institute and the Society of Antiquaries of London. He served on the Archaeology Committee of the European Science Foundation and the Higher Education Committee of the Council of Europe. He also served as an adviser of the National Monuments Advisory Council and the Historic Monuments Council in Northern Ireland. He travelled to conferences, museums and archaeological sites across Europe.

Always keen that the structures and supports were in place for archaeologists, Eogan was the first chairperson of the Irish Association of Professional Archaeologists [now the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland]. He was also, according to Wallace, "the star witness" in the High Court case which declared the Wood Quay Viking site a national monument even though Dublin City Council offices were subsequently built on it. In recognition of his leadership in archaeology, the then taoiseach, Charles J Haughey, appointed him as an independent senator to Seanad Éireann in 1987, a post he held for two years.

Unpretentious in manner and sociable by nature, he was as comfortable talking about archaeology to tour bus drivers as he was to academics, diplomats or politicians. His layperson's guide, Knowth and the Passage Tombs of Ireland (Thames and Hudson, 1986) reached a wide audience at home and abroad. His other books include Catalogue of Irish Bronze Swords (1965), The Hoards of the Irish Later Bronze Age (1983), The Accomplished Art: Gold and Gold-working in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze Age (1994) and the Socketed Bronze Axes in Ireland (2000).

George Eogan grew up in Nobber, Co Meath, where his early interest in archaeology was whetted by a national school teacher who had a degree in archaeology. He left school following his Group Cert at Nobber Technical School and worked at various jobs while pursuing his interest in archaeology by going on outings with the Royal Society of Antiquities. In the early 1950s, he got work as a labourer on archaeological digs for the National Museum of Ireland. P.J. Hartnett, an archaeologist working for the National Museum, recognised and encouraged his enthusiasm and when Hartnett became the first archaeologist employed by Bord Fáilte to promote archaeological tourism, Eogan became his assistant.

Palestine and Jordan

At this point, Eogan enrolled as a night student at University College Dublin (UCD) to study for a degree in archaeology and English.

Upon his graduation from UCD, he studied for his PhD under Prof Frank Mitchell at Trinity College Dublin. As a trainee archaeologist in the early 1960s, Eogan also won a scholarship with the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem to work on archaeological sites in Palestine and Jordan.

He worked as a researcher at TCD, the University of Oxford and Queen's University Belfast before being appointed as a lecturer in archaeology at UCD in 1965. He met his wife to be, Fiona Stephens at UCD when, as a social science student, she took his classes in archaeology. The couple were married in 1969 and every year decamped with their young children to spend the summer in the Boyne Valley. Their son, James Eogan - who is also an archaeologist - remembers how the family stayed from June to August in Townley Hall alongside international students where his mother cooked and looked after everyone. These included a stream of visiting artists, poets, politicians and ambassadors. It enabled his father to concentrate on working on excavations with his team of professional archaeologists, volunteers and local workmen.

George became professor of archaeology at UCD in 1979 and continued in that role until his retirement in 1995. Popular among students for his passion for archaeology and his wry sense of humour, he mentored numerous archaeologists who then went on to add to the knowledge of prehistoric Ireland. He cycled from his home in Rathgar to the Belfield campus in all weathers and was a reluctant retiree. In fact, he unsuccessfully took a High Court challenge against UCD, seeking the right to continue working until he was 70. Following his official retirement from UCD, he continued his research interests for over 20 years. In recognition of his career and achievements, his colleagues edited a book in his honour entitled, From Megaliths to Metals: Essays in Honour of George Eogan (Oxbow Books, 2004).

An ardent fan of the GAA, Prof Eogan maintained links with his native county and wrote regular articles for the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society Journal, Riocht na Midhe. He often said that one of his greatest honours was when he was named Meath Personality of the Year in 2003. In 2016, President Michael D Higgins officially opened the George Eogan Cultural and Heritage Centre in Nobber in honour of the town's own archaeologist. In 2020, Eogan's library was donated to the National Museum and his papers were donated to the UCD archives. The last monograph (which covers megalithic art) on his excavations at Knowth will be published by the Royal Irish Academy in spring 2022.

George Eogan at Newgrange for the winter solstice on 21st December 2009

George Eogan - Archaeologist, on burial rites & megalithic art.

Eoin Butler's Questions & Answers - The Irish Times - June 2012

When did you begin excavations at Knowth in Co Meath?
In 1962. I was an archaeologist with a particular interest in passage tombs. I knew it was important to carry out excavations at Brú na Bóinne and Knowth seemed, to me, to be the most interesting place I could start.

What did the site consist of at the time?
It was a large mound, about 30ft high, covering about an acre of ground. Subsequent excavations have revealed two enormous chambers with impressive kerbstones around the base and a variety of megalithic art.

Those are carvings rather than paintings, I assume?
Yes, they're non-representational carvings. Circles, triangles, symbols and so on. It's the largest collection of megalithic art anywhere in Europe. There are hundreds of stones.

How old is the site?
It dates back to 3,500 BC. That's older than the pyramids.

What function did it serve in 3,500 BC?
It was a burial chamber.

Why such an extravagant burial chamber? Was it hubris on the part of a king?
We're not certain. Certainly, society was stratified and only the remains of the upper classes would have been buried here. Unfortunately, the burial rite was cremation. The bodies were burned so, as a result, a lot of information was lost. What we can say is that the cult of the dead was a very important part of these people's lives.

Was the tomb built by slaves or by skilled craftsmen?
Skilled craftsmen, definitely. The architectural and engineering elements are so sophisticated , they had to be built by skilled people. Because of the east-west orientation of the passages, we believe there may have been an astronomical alignment with the spring and autumn equinoxes.

How has the site weathered the past five millennia? Were subsequent inhabitants of the area respectful of it? Did they build over it?
That's a very interesting question. In fact, between the 7th and 12th centuries AD, the mound at Knowth was the royal residence of the kings of Northern Brega, which occupied roughly the northern half of the modern county of Meath.

When you went down there in 1962, were you the first person to enter the tomb in 5,500 years or had previous generations pottered around in there?
The kings of Northern Brega transformed the site into a protected settlement by digging two ditches. When they were digging, they discovered the entrance to the passage. Some people went in and scratched their names on the stones.

What kind of names did people have in the seventh century?
They weren't like our names today. One name was Snedta, who was a male individual, we think.

If he was carving his name all over the place, it was definitely a man.
Yes, most likely. The other was Teistennach. They would both have been members of the Northern Brega kingdom.

You've been working at the site, on and off, for 50 years now. Is it slow, deliberate work or have there been any dramatic Tutankhamun-esque breakthroughs?
There were two such moments, in fact. Once, in 1967, we discovered a small hole on the western side of the mound. I uttered an exclamation, took my flash lamp and entered the passage. This, in turn, led to a very impressive chamber. The whole thing was over 100ft in length. It was very dramatic. The next year, we discovered a similar chamber on the eastern side. It was about 20ft high and extremely well constructed.

Prof George Eogan's Excavations at Knowth Volume 5 was launched at Knowth House, Co Meath in June 2012.