Doneraile’s Butchery Debate
Radiocarbon dating does not normally yield a single prehistoric calendar year. It measures the decay of radioactive carbon in once-living material, produces a result with an error range, and must then be calibrated against changing atmospheric carbon levels. A date expressed as 31,858 BCE should consequently be read as an approximate place on a deep-time timeline, not as a day or season fixed in the Irish archaeological record. The best chronological language is “around 34,000 calendar years ago”, while recognising that individual bones and sediments may be older or younger than that broad reference point.