Doneraile’s Reindeer Threshold
Radiocarbon ages are not calendar ages. They measure the remaining carbon-14 in organic material and must be calibrated against records of changing atmospheric carbon. For dates this old, calibration commonly produces wide ranges rather than a neat conversion. The designation 31,870 BCE should consequently be read as an approximate point within a larger climatic and archaeological interval, not as an anniversary. It is safer to say that Ireland around this time lay in MIS 3, during the long and uneven approach towards the Last Glacial Maximum.