Derryvree’s Inter-Till Pool
Radiocarbon ages are not calendar years waiting to be read directly from a bone or piece of peat. Atmospheric carbon-14 varied through time, so measured ages must be calibrated against independently dated records. At roughly 34,000 years ago the calibration curve is necessarily less fine-grained than in recent millennia, and individual determinations can translate into wide, sometimes discontinuous calendar ranges. A nominal BCE year is useful for arranging a chronological archive, but it cannot identify a particular season, migration or human visit.