Cave art discovery suggests first humans in Ireland came from Wales
Ancient cave art suggests first known humans in Ireland walked over from Wales
Researchers have found cave art in southwest Ireland dating back at least 15,000 years, pushing back the earliest known human presence on the island by about 5,000 years. The team, led by Dr. George Nash of Liverpool University, used AI to identify potential sites, and they believe the first settlers walked over a land bridge from Wales during the last Ice Age. The art includes engravings, ochre paintings, and fingertip flutings, and the team expects more discoveries.
The principle we worked on was 'absence of proof isn't proof of absence'.
- bookofjoe
- nerdralph
This doesn't make sense: "With summertime temperatures typically -10°C to -20°C".
Maybe the negative was mistakenly added, and nobody noticed in editing? 10°C to 20°C would be reasonable for a "forested and grassland plateau".
- rhdunn
So this would suggest that the Goidelic languages (Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Manx) are derived from the Brittonic languages (Welsh, Breton, Cornish). [1]
I wonder how this affects the different proto-Celtic to modern Celtic languages hypothesis. [1]
This would suggest the following language tree: Breton -> (Cornish / Welsh) -> Irish Gaelic -> (Manx / Scottish Gaelic).