Cave Hyenas at Castlepook
The precision of the number should not conceal the imprecision of the evidence. IntCal20, the principal Northern Hemisphere calibration framework, reaches back to 55,000 calibrated years before present, but it does not turn a radiocarbon result of this age into an exact calendar year. The dated materials from Ireland are also not an annual archive. They are bone, organic sediment, pollen, plant remains and glacial deposits, usually preserved or redeposited by natural processes. Their significance lies in the ranges they illuminate.