Cork Cave-Bone Archive
MIS 3, broadly between about 57,000 and 29,000 years ago, contained sharp shifts between comparatively milder interstadial episodes and colder stadials. These changes matter greatly for Ireland. Whether a valley, cave entrance or coastal lowland could support plants and grazing animals depended on temperatures, snowfall, permafrost, sea level and the proximity of glaciers. A calendar label such as 31,839 BCE therefore conveys a false exactness. Radiocarbon determinations require calibration against internationally maintained curves, and their probability ranges are not interchangeable with an invented BCE anniversary. Geological and ice-core chronologies provide broad correlation, not a diary of Ireland.