15,000-Year-Old Cave Art May Show Ireland's First People Walked from Wales

Cave art found in eight caves in south-west Ireland may change the story of the first people to live there. The art is at least 15,000 years old. The oldest clear sign of humans in Ireland before this find was about 10,500 years old, so this art could make that story about 5,000 years older. Dr George Nash of the University of Liverpool, who led the study, says those first people may have walked to Ireland from what is now Wales.

During the last Ice Age, much of the world's water was frozen, so the sea was lower. A strip of land about 46 miles (76 kilometres) long lay between Wales and Ireland. It was very cold, but wild horses, mammoths, bison and reindeer lived there. Early people followed these animals for food, so the land bridge was a natural path.

Dr Nash said, "We just weren't looking hard enough, and not in the right places." His team used a computer program to look for Irish caves like old cave sites in Wales. It found 28 possible caves, and eight contained art. Some of the art appears to show a deer and a mammoth.

Dr Nash's team thinks more people were looking for shelter, and caves were a good answer because they stayed about 10°C to 15°C all year, much warmer than the land outside. The team believes these eight caves are only the beginning. Future work may find even older signs of people, before the sea rose and closed the land bridge.