Bogbean Beneath the Tills
Radiocarbon laboratories report ages in years before present, where “present” conventionally means 1950, not the present day. Those measurements must then be calibrated against independently dated records of past atmospheric carbon, using curves such as IntCal20. At great antiquity, a radiocarbon measurement can correspond to a wide calendar range rather than a single year. “31,902 BCE” is thus best read as a notional place within the later Middle Midlandian, the Irish term commonly used for this part of the Last Glacial Period, rather than as an anniversary that archaeology can observe.