Celtic Knots

Celtic Knots are a mix of old Celtic art and Roman influence. In 450 CE, Christians saw the pagan patterns on the isle and began to use them in their own art and religion. This knot appears in books, art, architecture, and is also popular traditional tattoos. Their connection reflects the connectedness of the universe and the human. Step patterns are the “cloak“ like patterns that can be as long as the artist desires. There are many variations in the Celtic knot, but in all of them, various numbers of strands are woven and linked together and then reconnected to themselves. See below for some popular Celtic knot patterns or visit Gaelic Matters for more examples of this artwork.

I first encountered knots through Irish Dance. All traditional costumes, banners, and logos weave these designs. This dress below if my own class costume, showing the Celtic designs incorporating multiple colors of strands.

Celtic knots, in mathematics, are known to be alternating knots, no matter their apparent complexities. If you follow the strand in a Celtic knot, you will see that it alternates between crossing over and under the other part of the strand. You can construct a ‘‘Celtic knot“ by taking any even dimension grid. Then, using straight, diagonal, and curved pieces, first chose a boundary you want your knowledge to curve around. Next, place in your corner and straight pieces, finally, connect the rest of the knot using curved pieces so that the knot always intersects on a grid dot.

What is misleading about a lot of Celtic knots, is that they are not knots at all. Although they all follow the alternating pattern, Celtic knots made of more than one strand are instead links. The “link“ many strands together into one cohesive art.

For example, this one uses three different strands, woven together into symmetrical patterns.

My first thought when I saw this was what connection it had to braids or possible biological structures. The Irish Times published a brief overview of research where Celtic Knot type structures are found to carry DNA compactly in drug treatments or therapies.

This type of synthesizing method creates more branching than previous techniques and creates more opportunities for large-scale polymer production. Because Celtic knots link together different strands, a very dense protein can be formed. This maximizes space opening opportunities for gene treatment therapies.

Although this was an ancient art form, it drives the scientific advances of today. As seen in the grid method, Celtic patterns are incredibly efficient at combining compounds into a given space, while still remaining fluid and flexible. Even though all patterns might not be true “knots,“ they all connect strands in a compact and artistic way.