Ancient Cave Art in Ireland Points to First Humans Coming From Wales 15,000 Years Ago
- Researchers from Liverpool University and international partners found cave art in south-west Ireland dating back at least 15,000 years
- The discovery pushes back the known human presence in Ireland by around 5,000 years beyond what was previously accepted
- A computer algorithm modelled on cave sites in south Wales helped the team identify 28 potential locations across Ireland
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An international team of researchers believes the first humans to ever reach Ireland arrived from what is now Wales, walking across a land bridge that existed during the last Ice Age.
The conclusion follows the discovery of cave art at eight sites in south-west Ireland, which the team says dates back at least 15,000 years.
Source: Getty Images
According to BBC, Dr George Nash, a rock art specialist at the University of Liverpool who coordinated the Lost Land Bridge Project, said the findings push back the earliest confirmed human presence in Ireland by roughly 5,000 years. Prior to this, the oldest known archaeological evidence of humans on the island was roughly 10,500 years old.
How the land bridge made it possible
During the most recent Ice Age, falling sea levels exposed a strip of land connecting modern-day Pembrokeshire in Wales to the Rosslare area on the south-east tip of Ireland. Nash estimated the crossing was about 46 miles (76 km) of forested and grassland terrain.
With temperatures ranging from -10°C to -20°C in summer, the route still supported herds of wild horses, mammoths, bison and reindeer feeding on mosses and sedges in the near-frozen soil, making it viable territory for hunter-gatherers to follow and exploit.
Nash said south Wales had itself been settled between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago by early modern humans moving up from southern England, France and Spain, and that the art traditions found in the Irish caves represent a further evolution of what those communities developed over thousands of years.
AI helped pinpoint the caves
Rather than conducting a blind field search, the team fed a computer algorithm with data on the characteristics of cave dwellings in south Wales, allowing it to flag comparable sites in Ireland. The model identified 28 candidate caves, and eight were confirmed to contain rock art.
The engravings, ochre and charcoal paintings, and finger-drawn line sketches in clay all point to a date of at least 15,000 years ago, and Nash said the actual age could be considerably earlier.
The team, which also included researchers from University College Dublin, the University of Adelaide, and institutions in Dubai, Wales and Portugal, has chosen not to disclose the precise locations of the caves to guard against vandalism and looting.
Nash said the pressure of a growing population in Wales, where roughly 100 caves on the Gower Peninsula alone were occupied at the time, likely pushed groups further west in search of resources and shelter.
The researchers believe there is much more still to find. Nash noted that it would make little logical sense for early humans to have bypassed counties Wexford, Waterford and Cork entirely, and said the project was "pushing the boundaries of what we consider to be the final vestiges of a north-west European frontier."
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