The Cut-Marked Reindeer
The numbered year sits within a long and unstable climatic interval. The Last Glacial Maximum, when the British–Irish Ice Sheet became especially extensive, lay later, broadly between about 26,500 and 19,000 years ago. Around the earlier horizon represented by 31,919 BCE, the eventual expansion of that ice sheet was not yet complete. Geological evidence from north-central Ireland is particularly important. Organic sediments beneath later glacial deposits at Derryvree and Greenagho in County Fermanagh indicate ice-free conditions during parts of the preceding interval. One calibrated range from Derryvree spans approximately 36,900–31,700 cal BP; another from Greenagho spans about 37,200–35,700 cal BP.