Ice Age Threshold
There are no written sources, inscriptions, graves, houses, hearths or securely excavated tool assemblages from Ireland that can be assigned to 31,997 BCE. Nor can conventional radiocarbon ages be converted into a single historical year without qualification. Radiocarbon results must be calibrated against changing atmospheric carbon levels, and their outcomes are ranges of probability, not anniversary dates. For this early period, a cautious phrase such as around 34,000 years ago is more meaningful than an apparently exact year.