Cave art discovery suggests first humans in Ireland came from Wales

New research suggests that the earliest humans to arrive in Ireland may have originated from Wales, sparked by the recent discovery of ancient cave paintings. These artworks were uncovered in southwestern Ireland and are believed to date back more than 15,000 years, potentially rewriting the timeline of human presence on the island by several millennia.

During the last Ice Age, much of the British Isles were covered by an enormous continental glacier. At this time, lowered sea levels created a now-submerged land connection between what is today Pembrokeshire in Wales and the southeastern coast of Ireland near Rosslare. This “lost land bridge” would have provided a crucial migration route for hunter-gatherer communities seeking new territories.

Dr George Nash, a specialist in rock art from Liverpool University, explained that this land formation would have been a roughly 46-mile-wide stretch of forest and grassland. Despite the harsh conditions—with summer temperatures estimated between -10°C and -20°C—the environment supported a variety of large herbivores including wild horses, mammoths, bison, and reindeer. These animals subsisted on the resilient vegetation able to thrive in the cold, such as sedges, mosses, and lichens.

Nash emphasized that the existence of this pathway almost certainly would have attracted early humans. “I had always believed… that it was inconceivable that people would not have utilised the opportunity the pathway presented,” he stated. To investigate this hypothesis, he brought together an international team of scientists, involving experts from University College Dublin, the University of Adelaide, and additional academics based in Dubai, Wales, and Portugal. Their collaborative efforts have brought new insights into the prehistoric migration routes into Ireland

Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More