The –est Archaeology

Bear bone rewrites human history in Ireland

Butchered kneecap puts people on island earlier than thought

bear bone

 IRELAND’S OLDEST  Stone-tool marks on a brown bear’s kneecap provide the earliest evidence of humans in Ireland, between about 12,800 and 12,600 years ago.

James Connolly

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

In a bit of Irish luck, archaeologists have found evidence of the Emerald Isle’s earliest known humans. A brown bear’s kneecap excavated in 1903, featuring stone tool incisions, pushes back the date that humans set foot in Ireland by as many as 2,500 years.