Showing The Archaeology of Ireland (Bodley Head Archaeology) by Peter Harbison

Through modern scientific methods it is now becoming possible to learn what Ireland was before history was written. A skeleton found in a cave at Kilgreany in southern Ireland has shown that man may have lived in Ireland as early' as 9ooo BC at a time when most of the country lay under a blanket of ice and arctic bears and reindeer roamed. These earliest inhabitants would have been wandering hunters but shortly after 4ooo BC settlements were formed and in excavating these it has become apparent that ploughs and domestic animals were in use. Later, great skill was achieved in the art of carving decorations on stone and some knowledge of astronomy must have existed. In the Earlier Bronze Age, there is evidence that men had developed culinary skills.