Mammoth Cave’s Cut Femur
Archived: 18 September 2026
Labelled 31,311 BCE, this period in Ireland belongs to Marine Isotope Stage 3 and cannot be dated as a precise historical year. Castlepook, or Mammoth, Cave in County Cork produced a reindeer femur, broadly dated to about 31,000 BCE, whose possible stone-tool cut mark may indicate early human carcass processing. The disturbed cave deposits instead chiefly document diverse cold-stage fauna, including mammoth, deer, carnivores and small mammals. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves buried freshwater sediments showing intermittent ice-free tundra wetlands. Ireland remained climatically variable, with shifting ice, coastlines and animal ranges. No settlements, tools, polity or sustained human occupation are established.