10,000 years ago as the great Monument building cultures of the near East thronged with activity clans of complex hunter gatherers already beginning to settle down and experiment with agriculture for Millennia at the far Northwestern periphery of Europe Ireland had no inh habitants the mountains bogs and great old growth forests which then coated its Shores standing empty quiet save bird song and the wind but across the water to the east where lean Hunters at low time had looked out across the narrow stretch of sea Covetous eyes began to hold it in their Gaze on clear days
protruding from the sluggish sea still chilled by glacial flows released by The retreating ice sheets of the North they saw the outline of another land where the round Skyfire slid down into the endless icebound ocean though they couldn't have known it that place over the horizon was Europe's last land mass Beyond lay nothing but the endless churn of the Atlantic from that vantage point on the Wind lashed Shore piercing blue eyes surveyed The Horizon and the expanse of dark Hills on The far [Music] Coast until one day they made the leap could this for boing
place be their new home they were going to try at many times this dark aisle had been visible to the Mesolithic Seekers as they moved North with the changing season but their own lands were places of Plenty and they had long clung to their own Coast occasionally ranging Across The Bays on makeshift vessels and venturing out into the fish teeming esteres Seafood could be speared shellfish gathered and birds eggs scavenged from the higher Sea Cliffs but still the other land seemed to call to them those dark looming mountains rising up Beyond a narrowing strip of
sea the sky fire burning Beyond and finally after edging many days Further north The Seekers could clearly see its limits in these low Hills it was too much for their curious minds to resist once again they will seek out another land these seafaring folk have ranged further north on past occasions exploring the sea loocks and inlets where the land succumbs to the cold and vast Barren mountains Rise Up from the Shore but only a few bold Pioneers in other clans have crossed to the Dark Island that lies beyond their regular hunting grounds their visits have
been brief seasonal foray venturing a short distance in Shore trespassing on an eily quiet land devoid of people it seems a hostile place they say closed off from The Familiar abundance of nature despite the ranging of the most elite And patient of the hunters no herds of deer have been cited in the grass clearings nor Forest bore lurking in the shadowy Woodland the Explorers are resilient they have sharp minds and strong physiques well adapted to the extreme in time they will finish what Nature has not yet achieved in that strange Place bringing New Life Themselves
their Treasures are already being loaded on the shore in Wicker work baskets little piglets squeak leather sacks are filled with edible snails [Music] overseeing the preparations for the crossing the leader of the extended family has sharp features straight black hair and piercing blue Eyes the distinctive Genome of his people the Western hunter gatherers from a high sand June he stands watch he will keep vigil throughout the dark alert for dangers keenly observing how sparks of light track across the sky he looks up in Wonder the Sky Dome still glows with traces of orange fire but
he knows that soon another Skyfire will blow lay up somewhere behind him close by but not at the exact place from where its predecessor was fired out like a thrown Stone gradually it too will progress to The Far Side of the land from where it will sink below the hills whatever happened to the Skyfire it happened out there as the small bright Sparks of light begin to shine above him they spin around in shapes he Recognizes changing as the great herds move through the river valleys these patterns of stars will one day hold the secret
of navigation when finally another Skyfire Rises on the hillside behind him he wakes the group and the small party of Mesolithic Seekers prepare their hid skin craft for the crossing there is a Brisk offshore wind and the short passage across this narrow sea will be accomplished before the pale Sun reaches its Zenith in the dim Sky these people are the prime ancestors of the north Europeans his little party is no more than an extended family group as they carefully climb into their small craft they wonder what strange gods or animal spirits await their presence in
the silent [Music] land this place was a gift but it is an empty one They are the first of many to make this Crossing and populate this green territory other Footprints will tread in land but these Western hunter gatherers are the first people to walk upon its Shores and remain there over the 5,000 years to come these very earliest Irish men and women will be followed by many more this is the story not just of how Ireland was settled by Those Distant ancestors but how it flourished into one Of the most strikingly affluent Societies in
all of Europe at the very Dawn my name is Pete Kelly you're watching history time and this is the story of the first people in Ireland in prehistoric Ireland information about The Wider world was extremely hard to come by impossible even today we have the complete opposite problem an onslaught of information Coming at us all day every day much of it complete nonsense and that is where the sponsor of today's video comes in ground news is a website that gathers together and presents to you a wide range of verified news articles from all sides of
the political Spectrum so you can compare them and get context as you take in your [Music] information I got a chance to download The app and use it myself over the last few weeks and honestly in this world of echo Chambers and media bias in the news this is a brilliant way to find out what's actually going on for each news event you can see all the sources covering it around the world ownership details of these Publications factuality ratings indic ating credibility and subjectivity as well as insights into which countries are or aren't reporting On
it one of my favorite features of ground news is the blind spot feed which highlights stories overlooked by one side of the political Spectrum thus generally helping to challenge the echo Chambers we find ourselves in not only does ground news bring to you all the world's news in one place but by accessing the hard data behind the stories you can compare and absorb them Critically so head on over to ground. newws slht and use my link to save 50% on the same Vantage plan I use for unlimited access to all their features this is their
biggest discount of the year and only available for a limited time thanks to ground news for sponsoring this video this episode of History time was written and researched by historian and expert in the ancient world Dr Raul mclin I've left links to his excellent Books in the description below as well as his YouTube [Music] channel and now back to the prehistoric world [Music] there was good reason for the hardiness of the western hunter gatherers before their time our ancestors had been at the total mercy of the environment with each all enveloping Ice Age Potentially lasting
a 100,000 years all we could do was move adapt and survive during the Pline era the entire upper echelons of the globe were coated by a vast glacial Mass reaching deep into the European continent for northern Europe then the last glacial period was an era of Perpetual winter at the edge of an immense ice froner the enlarged ice caps locked up so much of the Earth's water that sea levels fell The oceans pulled back from the shallow coasts to such an extent that land masses were joined by icebound causeways stretches of sodn wasteland or strips
of Bleak Tundra Ireland existed in the front line of this glacial expanse and during warmer periods when the ice treated parts of its southern coast were exposed and connected to the European mainland in the gradual cycles of Environmental change these warmer periods could last 10,000 years before the glaciers would once more creep forward to envelop the land extinguishing all life about 40,000 years ago the earth's climate shifted dramatically the glaciers beginning to thw and Retreat from the northern reaches of the earth as the ice withdrew plants recolonized the exposed Terrain Hardy animals crossing over land
bridges in their wake to enter new tundra like regions on the edge of the ocean in this era known as the upper pale lithic new human populations expanded across Europe into breeding with and ultimately replacing their Neanderthal cousins in time the pairing of these populations created a new kind of human who possessed enhanced powers to envisage innovate and Adapt for the first time in Europe these new people often known as Crow magnon had a basic biology and cognitive ability comparable to our own they are therefore referred to in genetic studies as early European modern humans
being directly preserved in modern populations today in the interglacial periods as the ice withdrew life became abundant new foliage spreading across previously Barren lands Today the fossilized bones of prehistoric Wildlife confirm the habitat and denisons of this prehistoric landscape some we would recognize from Ireland today others not so much ancient varieties of geese hairs and arctic foxes being joined by Lemmings and even spotted hyenas all alike crossing over the now passable land [Music] Bridges these early Pioneers would occupy and populate the jutting Headlands of Europe places that one day would morph into the land we
call Ireland soon larger creatures too came to range across these bitterly cold grasslands including woolly mammoths Red Deer Reindeer and the creature known by its Latin name as megaloceros gigantus the giant Irish elk prehistoric Predators followed First gray wolves and brown bears and finally Crow magnon man these earliest hunter gatherers were shorter and stockier than modern Europeans but figurative cave art found at sites such as lco in France confirm their focused imagination and inquisitive intellect [Music] by 35,000 years ago crom magnon people were occupying those stretches of Southern Britain which had been exposed By the
retreating glacial [Music] ice their remains are preserved in deep caves that with stod eons of erosion and severe environmental changes [Music] they were a spar population living on the very edge of existence hunting reindeer and other large prey vital to their [Music] survival when the herd demanded it Parties of these crom magnon Hunters would follow the reindeer migrations further west to explore the clad fringes of What Would One Day become Europe though this was then a land mass with no clear boundaries at some point the hunters moved into the territory that would one day become
Ireland evidence from Castle PUK cave in Cork confirms their presence but traces are still incredibly rare the remarkable finds from Castle po include the hind Leg bone of a reindeer displaying deeply cut tool marks the animal having been butchered using a broad flat tool characteristic of crow magnon [Music] man the bone was dated by radiocarbon analysis and confirmed the Pres of the first people in Ireland 31,000 years before our modern era it is matched by not too dissimilar finds from [Music] Britain but the Ice Age had not finished with Ireland from around 26,000 years ago
the late glacial maximum marked the last stage of the pine Epoch as temperatures plummeted the ice once again surged South forming new glaciers as it went all life was first exiled then excluded and anything or anyone left behind Extinguished this final ice age in Ireland is known as the Midian era because of its astonishing impact on the Irish Midlands that final assault of ice sheets scarring and sculpting the landscape we know today into its present form with the land coated in glacius up to 2,000 ft High by around 25,000 BC these mountain-sized sheets were studded
with Boulders and abrasive gravel the advance and subsequent Retreat of these ice walls would Gorge out the Glens of ANM and scoop up The ushaped Valleys of the Wexford mountains in Sligo the highest peaks protruded from the massive glaciers known as nonacs while the abrasive ice scored and sculpted the tall Rock faces below into formidable and perplexing forms gravel filled Rivers at the base of melting glaciers created long sinuous ridges Rippling across the Irish Landscape elsewhere the ice molded the southern counties of oler into a belt of rolling doed shaped Hills known as drumlins also
dropping huge in congruous Boulders known as erratics and scooping past volcanic plugs to create escarpments such as scrabo Hill in the face of this advancing wall of ice the surface beneath buckling under the grinding action of the Glaus all signs of Life were eradicated as the Relentless ice edged slowly across the entire surface of Northern Europe animals and humans had no choice but to retreat [Music] some 23,000 years ago humans abandoned Southern Britain to endure and survive retreating Southwood in search of more tolerable [Music] Climates the diminished populations with Drew to regions in southern France
and Spain the so-called glacial refugia here conditions were severe but still within the limits of endurance for plants animals and people northern Europe now lying beyond the range of human settlement in The Refuge regions of Europe where cave painters etched their thoughts on Rock surfaces the cold and the scarcity worked on Human minds and bodies too populations dwindled hunger increased and competition intensified in these hostile conditions only the most resourceful physically fit and mentally adapt would survive the ensuing changes included a unique gene mutation to reduce a dark pigment in the iris of the eyes
perhaps this offered a slight advantage in perceiving color gradients in dim Surroundings or perhaps it improved endurance since it reduced the depressive effect of lowlight environments or perhaps it gave the human Hunter a faster response awareness as he chased his prey along Frozen Terrain in the dying moments of daylight but whatever the cause of this adaptation for the first time our ancestors began to watch the world through distinctive blue eyes and so a population known now as The West Wern hunter gatherers emerged within that uniquely challenging [Music] environment for more than seven Millennia to come
the final surge of the Ice Age saw the glaciers reach their maximum extent then once again the climate shifted and the ice retreated from the Atlantic Shores of Northern Europe human populations again followed the gradual expansion of plants and animals Into a new tundra likee environment near unrecognizable from the one their predecessors entered so long before finally around 15,000 years before our time the Western hunter gatherers reached Southern Britain [Music] in this era immense quantities of water were still locked up in the glaciers causing the ocean to retreat and the seabed to become traversible animals
grazed along sodn Marshes that would one day form the depths of the Irish sea the hunter gatherers followed this prey eventually Crossing tenuous corridors leading from the continent to Ireland warming conditions having finally left Ireland ice free in time humans will walk once more upon the solid surface of its Terrain food is scarce they enter the cave to hunt a dangerous prey in the silent Darkness or seek Shelter From the increasing [Music] cold in the period from 12,000 to 9,000 BC a progression of plants and animals spread North to recolonize the land life crept along
the land bridges seeding a 300M Corridor of low terrain connecting the continent to the new Irish peninsula [Music] pollen evidence indicates that by 11,800 BC The Bleak Tundra had become open grassland within 500 years Ireland had its first cold resistant trees willow bushes and stunted junipers which could thrive in Baron Clays and gravel heavy soils [Music] the trees spread from south to North suggesting that the life-bringing land bridges extended directly from Continental [Music] Europe next came small species of animals that fed on grass including Sleek prehistoric hairs larger animals followed once again including reindeer and
giant Irish elk herds of these animals migrated great distances and grazed their way across the land bridges to repopulate the new Peninsula by about 11,000 BC these animals reappear in Ireland and with them came the first large Predators including wolves bears and M [Music] confirmation comes from a limestone cave in County Clare where the prehistoric kneebone of a butchered brown bear was recovered during underground investigations this remarkable find from the Alice and gwendaline Cave has confirmed that in around 10,800 BC I land was inhabited once Again a prehistoric person had used a stone tool to
S and scrape away the tough tendons that gave the bear its muscular power and strength these Senus were usually treated and used as cord to sew together the thick hides worn by these early hunters they could also have been used to bind Sharp bladed Flint tools to wooden handles or fix the stabilizing feather fins to hunting Arrows the type of Weaponry the hunters needed to survive in such a hostile environment haunted by such ferocious animals as wolves and [Music] bears perhaps these early inhabitants of Ireland withdrew into caves to avoid the severe cold or maybe
they had found a hibernating bear during the prolonged and worsening Winters perhaps the strongest of the Group had entered in the darkness to corner and kill this impressive Beast or maybe this animal had been hunted Elsewhere for its meat and H es and brought back to the cave to be butchered The Remains might therefore reveal an epic combat between man and nature in an utterly unforgiving land whatever had occurred the corpse was a trophy to be processed and stripped of every useful aspect of its Anatomy all across the globe in that time as the first
temples and permanent settlements began to thrive in the warmer climes of the near East the hunters of the northern Fringe were expanding into the regions left behind by the glaciers in the same era another group of humans distant cousins to the Western hunter gatherers the ancient North eurasians were Crossing the bearing land bridge from Siberia into Alaska ranging across a newfound continent of Plenty soon cut off from the rest of the world and embarking on their own completely unique path in time they would become the Native Americans but in Ireland those first Western hunter gatherers
to occupy this land would not be so Fortunate they had reached a dead end in their Westward Expansion across Eurasia their presence on the western edge of the supercontinent was fragile and limited yet again some 12,000 years ago during the younger dras period there was a Resurgence of the ice temperatures plummeting once more yet again the hunters withdrew from these Fringe territories as their prey Became extinct or shifted their long-term migratory patterns this was the era when the giant Irish elk finally disappeared from Ireland never to return their kind had once occupied a vast sth
of Eurasia from Ireland to Siberia they had thrived in a tundra likee landscape but in the final stretches of The Ice Age they could not evolve nor adapt with sufficient speed the Elk's own body chemistry could not maintain the effort of supporting such enormous antlers it required for combat and display victims of their own Anatomy starved of nutrition the species finally succumbed to environmental pressures becoming extinct [Music] the giant skeletal exhibits proudly Displayed in Modern Irish museums are a testimony to their prehistoric struggle recovered from ancient bogs these massive skeletons reveal not only the power
of nature but the ever possible outcome of severe and rapid changes in the [Music] climate during yet a another Millennium of severe Winters the glaciers reappeared on high ground in both Ireland and Scotland and though brief this final encroachment of the ice was sufficient enough to once again remove most animals from the land including Humanity when warmer conditions finally resumed for good this time Ireland was still connected to the continent through broad land bridges that could seed and sustain [Music] trees from around 9,500 BC at the dawn of the hollene birch trees are found Followed
by other ancestral species that would form the roots of the Native Irish forests that still survive today by contrast only a few rare creatures had survived this final cold period recent genetic analysis confirms that Irish hairs in particular possess extreme genetic diversity suggesting that they might have been isolated from the rest of their species for far longer than other creatures these Hardy hairs could be Among the oldest Irish animals when the ice age finally ended the retreating glaciers melted into vast swollen streams pouring immense quantities of water back into the oceans across the globe the
rising Seas encroached upon the land swamping glow Ling terrain and creating new islands The Disappearing landbridge between Ireland and Europe first became A low-lying expanse of salt marshes sandbanks and mud flats these wet lands were in turn gradually inundated and submerged as the climate of Ireland improved permitting a new abundance of life the restoration of Irish biodiversity became a race across a sinking landscape with very few plants and animals able to make the journey populations of mice and pine Martins were the first small animals to arrive in Ireland recent genetic analysis suggests that these animals
might have come via the continent rather than neighboring Britain but many species did not make the crossing in time for example Ireland still lacks certain creatures that burrow for their food such as the mole and the common shrew these small mammals could not survive the marshy conditions or Tolerate the still frigid temperatures if they survived the journey Ireland also has fewer amphibian species than Britain and some ecological barrier or filter seems also to have halted the progress of snakes and other reptiles perhaps it wasn't St Patrick after all who banished the snakes from Ireland but
the Ice Age followed by sudden rapid flooding of the land land Corridor to the continent as a result of these great Changes at the dawn of the holen with fewer native plants and only half the species of mammals of its neighbor Ireland lacks the biodiversity of Britain and the continent crucially the encroaching Seas did not permit the passage of Red Deer and Wild BS the principal prey of the western Hunters but as the warming climate permitted the spread of grasslands and the growth of Forests the island did become Bountiful nuts fruits and seeds floating or
blowing across the [Music] waters the lakes and rivers on the new island also thrived as the waterways received migratory fish such as salmon trout and Eels but where were the humans one calm morning around 10,000 years ago a small family group of hunter Gatherers is about to make the Western Crossing [Music] at the low expanse of dark Hills on the far Coast blue eyes surveyed The Horizon gazing out across the narrow sea at the end of the last Ice Age the adjoining habitats of the Atlantic coast were submerged beneath Rising Tides one territory lost to
the Sea at that time was the prehistoric expanse of Doggerland a large boggy region once situated in the North Sea between the temps and the Rine in its prime it was a mass of sandbanks beaches lagoons salt marshes and mud flats a thriving wet land providing a rich and diverse hunting ground for its human inhabitants the estries and rivers were filled with fish wild fowl and small game but before this habitat was finally submerged in 6,000 BC its peoples had already departed on their hid skin craft to surrounding Shores it is not until 9,000 BC
that Ireland appears as a distinct island with a size and shape resembling its current confines perhaps there was a similar prehistoric habitat in the wide depression that currently forms the Irish sea Basin after all over a third of the Irish sea is less than 120 ft Deep Pete deposits recovered from the seabed nearly 70 ft below current shorelines reveal the existence of ancient forests as do the beaches of Wales like doggerland then this could well also have been an environment that was destroyed by rising sea levels its people being displaced onto the surrounding Shores at
the heart of the Irish sea Then the aisle of man might be all that remains of a now submerged greater landscape once a Highland Plateau PE in out over the low Plains the earliest people of Ireland probably made the short yet nonetheless daunting sea Crossing in hid skin craft or large Dugout canoes fashioned from Single Tree Trunks their craft probably resembling the umcs constructed by modern Inuit peoples Watertight skins stretched out over a basic wooden frame though strong enough to carry a large Hunting Party or an entire family including their basic possessions the ANM Hills
on the North Coast of Ireland are an abundant source of Flint so prehistoric seafarers may have visited these Shor long before the island was permanently settled these Crossings would have been Short because the intervening sea had not yet risen and expanded to its current Dimensions due to the shifting shorelines and tendency for hunters to hug the coast the earliest evidence for prehistoric people has mostly either being eroded by Tides or submerged in sediments the earliest evidence for the new occupation of Ireland that finally stuck comes from Inland sites dated to about 8,000 BC but something
extraordinary had to occur before the interior territories could support significant communities Ireland had to receive a population of wild [Music] pigs across northern Europe the hunters sought large game with red deer in particular being a favored prey although Irish Rivers teamed with salmon and Eels there were no large prey like deer in its grassy hillocks and dark forests prehistoric deposits at nand's Cross near Dublin revealed a collection of early land snails close to the coast these mollusks could well have been introduced by seafarers visiting the Irish esteres it's not out of the question to ponder
whether these visitors seeded the island too with other species including oak trees to produce Acorn crops Providing sustenance for squirrels mice Badgers wild boes and so when the land was ready these early settlers seemed to have captured wild pigs on the far Shore to release them into the quiet Irish Woodlands these Mesolithic Proto horticulturalists may have finished what nature could not accompl Lish seeming to deliberately shape a new land in preparation for their own permanent Settlement in time the rapidly propagating pigs provided a meat source for the coastal Hunters who could then finally range further
in land eventually they abandoned Coast migration entirely in favor of permanent Inland occupation these people became the first Irish in Modern Day Poland and bellarus Wildlife reserves like the bisha forest have managed to preserve a number of Ancient habitats that resembl the Primeval old growth forests of prehistoric Europe offering botanists zoologists and prehistorians a glimpse into the Lost World of the Middle Stone Age while providing evidence for the population balance and character of the earliest animals of the hallos scene bone remains from Mesolithic Island confirm the presence of hair wood mouse Red Squirrel sto Pine
Martin otter Wildcat lynx and the Wolf but the first remains of bears only occur later in the Mesolithic at occupation sites such as MOA lock in County meth is it possible then that people deliberately introduced this species to too for its fur perhaps releasing captured bear cubs into the Irish Woods surviving prehistoric remains suggest that Mesolithic populations were highly mobile and sparcely settled on The land anthropology too offers comparative evidence with other hunter gatherer groups like The Early populations of Tasmania based on this information early Mesolithic Ireland may have held a total population of less
than 4,000 individuals these small communities would have relocated over the course of the year to take advantage of seasonally changing Resources spending much of their lives in solitary bands with perhaps only only intermittent meetings with other groups for trade and marriage early Mesolithic tools have been found at about 20 prehistoric sites in Ireland these include scatterings of skillfully made Stone implements chippings from flintwork traces of fire and small waste Heaps of animal and fish bones the remains of temporary camps where family groups gathered to take advantage of seasonal [Music] resources this early evidence is intriguing
because Irish Flint blades do not resemble the toolkits and weapons found in neighboring Britain perhaps survival in Ireland required a different assemblage of equipment as deer did not yet exist on The island there were fewer hides to be scraped and no antler horns to be utilized for tools so life in Ireland required a different set of survival skills its population therefore rapidly acquired an entirely separate cultural identity most of the Irish tools are microliths tiny minute Flint blades made into geometrically shaped barbs that could be slotted into the wooden shaft of an arrow a harpoon
or a Spear other microliths are needle-shaped points that have been studied for microscopic wear revealing a range of functions including fishing and [Music] sewing larger implements including Flint axes for Butchery and is with perpendicular blades for working wood though we can't say much about the symbology and even religion of these earliest of Irishmen the Mesolithic Hunters undoubtedly spent significant amounts of time polishing Stone axes to produce an aesthetically pleasing smooth [Music] surface very likely being used as a sort of decorative ceremonial [Music] item at Mount sandel near colorine in the far north of Ireland evidence
of habitation is seen in a series of excavated Huts radiocarbon dating suggests an Occupation period close to 7,000 BC post holes revealing the outline of a slightly oval structure some 18 ft across formed by bending Hazel rods or Birch poles into a domed frame then covered up by Brushwood or hides in the center of this large Hut was a hearth that had been repeatedly used interestingly the structure had been restored and rebuilt several times during multiple prolonged periods of occupation Likely over several Generations ethnographic analogy suggests that this home provided seasonal shelter to a single
family perhaps one of many Huts that were clustered on Irish hillsides during times of abundance in the Kera cave in limmerick the the remains of two Mesolithic Irish people were found from about the same era two other chromation burials were recovered at Castle Connell also in Limerick one grave pit containing the cremated remains of an adult male buried with a polished Stone Axe and two microliths his grave had been marked by an upright post several centuries later another solitary cremation was deposited in a second pit near this grave site perhaps this was a resting point
on some seasonal route of migration along the River Shannon toward its broad estery the Irish Mesolithic era or Middle Stone Age lasted for more than 4,000 years from around 8,000 to 4,000 BC for over four Millennia Western hunter gatherers were the first and only inhabitants of the Emerald Isle even now a significant part of their genetic character remains encoded in current European populations today many Modern Irish with their dark hair including Champion sports stars political leaders and Visionary Poets observe the world through that same genetic marker of blue eyes forged in the apocalyptic cold of
the Ice Age but today there is a great deal more DNA than just the hunters for by 4,000 BC newcomers would arrive altering the island irrevocably forever [Music] more as the first hunter gatherers moved Into Ireland the near East was already in the midst of the so-called Neolithic Revolution having already experimented with new ways of producing food for Millennia by 8,000 BC throughout the wide Ark of Western Asia known as the Fertile cresant settled agriculture of both plants and animal animals had been widely adopted this Paradigm changing new way Of life involved not just the
cultivation of grass plants that produced simple grains but the rearing of domesticated animals too including shorthaired pigs primitive breeds of sheep goats and diminutive cattle over the centuries to come as Clans grew in size and ideas spread farming practices from Mesopotamia and the Levant spread northward to Anatolia the large land mass jutting into the Mediterranean and extending along the Black Sea Coast toward the Eastern edge of Europe from ancient times to recent years Anatolia has always been a Nexus of communication between continents and the prehistoric past was no exception gradually as the e8th millennium BC
progressed the previously hunter gatherer population of Anatolia abandoned or adapted their previous ways of life beginning to farm the [Music] land it was these Anatolian hunter gatherers the Builders of such Neolithic metropolises as chatal hoyuk and aiki hoo who would become the first European Farmers though it would take work and time several Generations in fact for crop selection to produce plant forms that Could manage and thrive in the more Northerly climbs of the European Mainland when they first arrived on European soil by around 6,500 BC those Anatolian Farmers must have been quite a shock to
the locals with a physically distinct and separate look from the population that occupied most of Europe genetic markers reveal that the Anatolian Farmers had tanned skin brown hair and Hazel colored Eyes unlike the hunters however the adoption of farming by the anatolians was a population multiplier allowing their expansion from the Eastern periphery of Europe across the entire continent in a relatively short space of time settled communities produced far more surviving children born in closer succession to each other population pressure therefore encouraged descendants to push outwards And create new homesteads on unclaimed lands as a result
farming spread with remarkable speed across Europe sometimes adapted by Hunter bands but largely conveyed by the descendants of the much more populous Anatolian peoples by 6,500 BC the first European Farmers spread into Mainland Greece [Music] their settlements there can still be seen at sites like ceso and [Music] dimini and from there they crossed the Mediterranean to colonize its various coastlines and Islands within just a few centuries they had extended their presence Beyond Italy and were settling Islands such as Sardinia where the modern population retains a genetic composition very similar to their Neolithic [Music] Forbears from
the edge of the Mediterranean they continued onwards Generation by generation driven by curiosity and need spreading northward along Europe's Atlantic Fringe in Spain and France they terraformed the land clearing the old growth forests while acclimatizing to their new territories always spreading agriculture where they went through their crops Their livestock and their [Music] population meanwhile another offshoot of the Anatolian Farmers had been gradually spreading Westward into Europe via the danu and Ry river [Music] systems in about 5,000 BC these two population groups finally converged in what is now northern France where their Kindred cultures merged and
reformed after more than a Millennium of separate expansion the coastline stretching from Britany to the R was now settled by a Neolithic people of common ancestry some had even intermixed with the far less numerous blue-eyed Hunters on their long progress through Europe but for some reason their passage into Britain and isand was halted perhaps near Eastern crops were not yet well adapted to the damp climate of the Atlantic perhaps it was something else but the expansion of the first farmers into Britain and Ireland did not occur for another Thousand [Music] Years finally by about 4,000
BC a rapid spread of Neolithic populations into the Atlantic Isles took [Music] place perhaps the Western Ocean environment had altered in such a way that it now benefited Farming maybe a sequence of exceptional Summers or climatic changes that led to prolonged drier and warmer winter conditions Maybe these communities simply developed and propagated new damp resistant crops like barley or a combination of all these factors however it took place events as always largely shrouded in mystery communities of farmers who'd occupied the coast lines facing Britain finally began to cross the narrow sea to farm The opposite
it Shores that had been visible from their homelands for Generations a newfound confidence in seafaring spread rapidly through these neolithic communities and by 4,000 BC the settlements were present throughout Southeast England within two centuries the first farmers had arrived in southern Wales the aisle of man and even Western Scotland current radiocarbon dates are In precise but findes from Ireland too confirm the presence of wellestablished Neolithic farming communities by about 3,800 BC suggesting a simultaneous expansion of neic settlers from Britany into the Irish sea to explore and settle along its coasts following along the ocean currents
Maritime settlers probably sailed in hid skin craft or large Outrigger canoes that were maneuvered by ORS at gormanston beach in meath the Neolithic remains of a giant Dugout canoe were discovered confirming the existence of Outrigger vessels over 20 ft long perhaps these Outriggers supported large raftlike platforms onto which families seed grain and livestock could be loaded the first agriculturalists probably set sail in small flotillas heading for lands visible on the Horizon as Farmers they intuitively understood seasonal weather patterns and more distant lands could be reached by observing the path of the Sun or the position
of the Stars the mountains of mourn and other prominent Peaks providing clear landmarks for those who entered the enclosed Irish sea most of the crossings undertaken by these settlers would have required only a few days to complete Furthermore once an overseas Community was established there would be a continual back and forth movement of people and surplus Provisions between the former homelands and the new settlements this was the migration stream that propagated and rapidly spread the Neolithic way of life across Britain and Ireland genetic analysis of the Neolithic Iris suggests a vibrant and healthy Population somewhat
resembling the people of modern-day Sardinia recently the grave of a young Neolithic woman was excavated at balatti near Belfast and her genome was sequenced to reveal that she had a Mediterranean appearance and was largely healthy besides hemocromatosis a condition where the body retains excess iron the hunter gatherers of Ireland Were different from the Mesolithic peoples of Britain both in their behavior and numbers the largest prey animal of the Irish was the wild boar of the deep [Music] forest this relative lack of large animals could have not just limited their numbers but kept them away from
sites claimed by the new farmer [Music] colonists the first Neolithic people to Reach Ireland may have avoided the esteres where Mesolithic Hunters had fishing grounds entirely this is suggested by chemical analysis of Neolithic skeletons that show a lack of river or lake fish in their diet though this could also indicate a possible taboo involving this particular food source instead of claiming the esteres the Neolithic settlers seem to have Exploited Upland regions with better field drainage and a greater suitability for livestock unlike in Britain the grasslands of Ireland had no Red Deer to compete with grazing
animals but because the environment was wetter the settlers may have sewn damp resistant barley in place of other wheat [Music] crops though we know nothing of their first Meetings soon enough the Two Worlds came together although skilled in Wilderness survival male Hunters may have exchanged food stuffs with the new Neolithic settlers based on the genetic evidence they probably accepted Neolithic [Music] women and either joined the domestic communities or left their offspring and descendants behind in the settlements but as agriculture spread the farmers rapidly outbred and replaced The Mesolithic inhabitants if the incomers doubled their population
every generation it would take only six generations for the descendants of just 100 adult settlers to outnumber the dwindling population of hunters the small dispersed population of Western hunter gatherers was well balanced and nature attuned and thus easily overwhelmed as the landscape was transformed by the ever Multiplying numbers of [Music] newcomers after thousands of generations of a roughly similar way of life then the transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Neolithic new stone age of Agriculture was relentless and rapid spanning only six to eight [Music] Generations within the space of just two centuries the
Neolithic Revolution had Introduced a new population with an entirely different lifestyle culture range of material objects and belief systems rapidly expanding along migrational streams made up of related individuals and groups eventually most of northern France Britain and Ireland were brought into a single cultural Zone with a familiar shared ancestry like their ancestors in the Ancient near East as objects were fashioned in clay and fired to make pottery this new material culture developed the first Irish Ceramics as well as new forms of stone tools suited for Woodland clearance and agriculture crucially the environment would also begin
to change perhaps largely imperceptibly at first but before long morphing beyond all [Music] Recognition hunting survived of course just as it would throughout all of human history both to supplement the diet of the farmers and increasingly as a status symbol though as it always had been G name remains Spar in Ireland even more so with the burning of the forests the new Neolithic populations of Ireland employed a different tradition of Flint napping to their Mesolithic forbears producing distinctive arrowe Heads and Javelin points for their hunting while also introducing new varieties of scraping tools to process
the hides and pelts of their own livestock mostly consisting of non-native animal breeds carried across oceans and continents from the fertile cresant with their masters over the previous 3,000 years it didn't take long before the old forests of Pine and Birch all across Ireland land were Cleared creating open pastures for cows pigs and sheep or New Field systems for crops like wheat and barley like Farmers all over the world today the Neolithic Irish may have practiced slash and burn agriculture first felling trees then burning the dried foliage to create nutrient Rich soils just as it
is today however the exposed land was quickly exhausted of Nutrients becoming largely Barren Terrain in time morphing into deforested expanses like dartmore and the marshes of conak [Music] the great impact on the Irish landscape by these early terraforming colonists is revealed by traces of field plots uncovered in County Mayo on the west coast which may indicate how much of Ireland once [Music] Looked dating to as early as 3,500 BC the cave e Fields consist of parallel dry stone walls that once demarcated Neolithic Fields creating a vast amount of food for an Ever growing population this
clearing of trees however had an unintended side effect causing the formation of the sodn bogland That Remains to this day eventually forming a preservative Covering over the Neolithic remains so we can still view them [Music] today across most of Europe Neolithic Farmers made greater use of polished Stone axes than their predecessors the tools were flaked into shape and then ground down into a smooth finish using abrasives such as Sandstone undoubtedly prestigious decorative items they provide evidence for contact kinship and exchange across Neolithic Europe and their geological origin can be matched to particular regions in the
Atlantic Isles this distribution reveals that rather than a barrier or impediment to further population movement communication and travel the Irish sea was a conduit for Exchange in Ireland the main material for export was porcelanite a dark dense stone that was Quarried in Northeast ANM over 7,000 porcelanite axes have been found in Ireland but they have also been recovered at Neolithic sights ranging from Scotland to Southern England another ax head production site in Northwest Britain that demonstrates The longdistance Exchange network of the early Neolithic is on the slopes of great Langdale in the Lake District This
impressive axe Factory supplied Ireland with a distinctive green hued stone over 100 of these fine gray green ax heads have been recovered from various Neolithic sites in [Music] Ireland perhaps indicating the course of migration streams the strengthening of social alliances or even a quest for esoteric religious [Music] Knowledge whatever was occurring there was a constant flow of Neolithic settlers coming and going between the two islands it comes as no surprise that given the immense changes taking place in the fourth millennium BC all across Ireland the seasonal campsites of the Mesolithic [Music] disappear replaced by larger
more permanent homesteads constructed from Solid Timbers Neolithic dwellings in Britain and Ireland were long rectangular buildings ranging from 18 to 36 ft in length crowded busy homesteads of multigenerational Clans where people lived in close proximity to each other and to their [Music] livestock just like in developing societies today large families were an Advantage because children of all ages could perform chores and provide labor to assist with Farm workor [Music] but nonetheless there were important Regional differences in the practices of these First Farmers on the continent where farming was more productive Neolithic dwellings increased and developed
into small [Music] villages but in Ireland the Neolithic Population tended to remain in isolated farmsteads or small and welld dispersed clusters of houses perhaps encouraging a greater focus on ritual and religious centers used as vital community meeting places for an otherwise dispersed [Music] population religious centers that in time would grow and flourish into some of the greatest monuments in all of prehistoric Europe for as the fourth millennium BC came to an end one of the great flourishing of Irish prehistory was about to begin it had been a cold clear night and now a low winter
Mist clung to the hor frost on The Damp grass at dawn on the shortest day the god king observed the first dim rays of the Rising Fire slant through the long Stone Passage M of the great Earth and Mound half closing his skyc colored eyes he squinted into the mounting intensity of sunlight the time of Plenty would come again warmth and growth would return to the land he stepped forth from the quartz chamber to the approval of gathered priests and holy men the wind lashed Hillside was studded with huddled family groups who had come To
observe the ceremony many of them dark skinned with chestnut hair they brown and green eyes the color of the Earth or the crops in the fields characteristic of the Neolithic Farmers whose ancestors had stemmed from Anatolia long ago but the god king and many of his priests are different their eyes shine with the distinctive blue of an earlier [Music] people because the god king had reemerged from the mount the cycle would begin again the bear Earth would regenerate and the trees and bushes would bear fruit the beasts of field and of forest would give birth
again the dark and cold turned back once more it was a scene that played out year on year Century on Century at ceremonial sites large and small all over the land as the fourth millennium BC progressed the Neolithic expansion throughout the Irish sea territories is characterized by the appearance of large communal structures often including ceremonial enclosures and distinctive burial sites hundreds of megalithic tombs and monuments have been identified and Investigated in both Britain and [Music] Ireland for example so-called Causeway camps were large enclosures usually surrounded by a series of up to three non-continuous ditches and
Banks crowned with Timber Palisades [Music] access to the internal space came via breakes in this outer circuit in so-called causeways leading into the heart of the Compound like the similarly massive cursus monuments of Britain the remains of cattle domestic waste ceramic fragments and occasional human bones have been found in the ites but there is little evidence of any substantial structures inside the enclosures the archaeology then suggests that the function of these enclosures might have been ceremonial as a focus for cult activity or seasonal ritual gatherings [Music] a situation seen also in many other early societies
on Earth from the Hopewell ceremonial Earthworks in Ohio to the Ancients near East it's possible Causeway enclosures might have begun as defensive Corrals in wooded landscapes places to safeguard animals during the seasonal movement of Mesolithic Hunters but as the years and centuries Went by their purpose may have developed and expanded with the ancestral gathering places becoming exchange centers for scattered [Music] homesteads or perhaps communal feasting grounds arguably like societies all over the world also connected to esoteric funeral rights involving [Music] excarnation where corpses would be Exposed to the elements and Scavenging Birds but free from
the attention of larger wild animals and thus given back to the cycle of [Music] nature the bone fragments would then be removed for deposition in other ritual or religious contexts perhaps even in the homestead [Music] itself many Causeway enclosures were Used for generations with the site being modified ditches recut restored or Banks expanded over many hundreds of [Music] years over 70 of these sites have been identified in southern Britain dating to about 3,800 BC onwards but they are also found in Ireland and the causeway enclosure at dunore Hill Antrim dates to this same era Interestingly
the enclosure at murab boy in Sligo could date to as early as 4,000 BC if so this site in Northwest Ireland was built at the very onset of the Neolithic expansion into the Atlantic Isles [Music] the other Innovation brought by the Neolithic cellus one of the most famous features of their world and still a prominent feature on wild Moors and Hills was what archaeologists call the Megalithic [Music] tomb the remains of well over a thousand megalithic tombs still survive or have been previously documented on the Irish landscape consisting of large capstones set on top of
upright stone slabs that create Chambers buried within an earth and [Music] Mound the human remains of special or Elite persons were deposited within the internal Stone Chambers while the mound itself served as a center for religious ceremony often All That Remains of these monuments is a dolman with stonework exposed as a large flat Capstone resting on its supports like the slabs of a giant table just a few survive in larger dimensions as a shadow of their original Form yet revered down all the generations to come even still [Music] today for the antiquarians and archaeologists who've
spent the last two centuries and more striving to unlock the secrets of these ancient tombs the megalithic constructions and their internal designs are integral in reconstructing something of the Religious beliefs of their society during the lifetime of The Monuments inner passages often being reoccupied to make offerings conduct ceremonies and admit new token remains from the dasty Elite should someone from The Chosen class die but in this afterdeath existence the ruling class seemed to have been preserved only as a symbolic fragment of their former [Music] selves joining their ancestors as a minor contribution to a vast
conglomerate entity embedded into the landscape an embodiment of identity place and Community for those still on the Mortal plane perhaps where the vaunted ancestors could be mediated with in times of trouble and a few chosen individuals could join their exalted rank In revealing the scale of Neolithic society and the levels of social cooperation that were possible within the ever expanding population megalithic tombs also hint at the emergence of a new social Elite who could summon wider communities to Aid in the construction of large labor projects very possibly Ireland's very first kings and queens at the
dawn of everything the largest and most famous Of these neic constructions is undoubtedly the site of new Grange in the bo [Music] Valley this impressive Visage unfortun ately restored inauthentically in the 1970s consists of a passage grave within a 40t High Mound stretching for an entire acre within the mount a 60 ft long Stone lined internal Corridor leads into a deep chamber A sacred place with coral roof and three alcoves here the illustrious dead would be interred like many other megalithic tombs and the stone circles that would largely come later the corridor had been aligned
so that on the morning of the winter solstice the Rays of the Rising Sun are directed down into the darkness to flood the chamber with light a phenomenon that still fires the imagination of those who see it Today no doubt completely blowing the minds of Neolithic visitors the site itself would have been wildly impressive too differing a great deal from what we see today quartz Stones had been brought here perhaps to form a dazzling facade as the modern reconstruction suggests most remarkable of all is that the temple at newrange is considerably older than Stonehenge and
even the Great Pyramids of Giza carbon dated to around 3,200 be it remains as a testament to the productivity and creativity of the population of the boen river valley where more than 30 small amounts exist too far more than just a grave site only a few token remains from The Chosen Elite ever being deposited within its inner confines newrange would have functioned both as a temple and a ceremonial Center in some of the greatest surviving Examples of Neolithic art found anywhere in Europe large curbstones in front of the mound display the coiled symbols synonymous with
megalithic art at neighboring Nath a similarly wildly impressive impressive sight with a whole series of Tomb Mounds built over and over again down the Millennia the swirling patterns of Neolithic art can also be seen the similarly impressive Passage Tomb at dowth completes the main tombs Of this vibrant ritual landscape of the bo Valley revealing the societ Ral scale of Neolithic Island and the commitment of its people to their shared religious and mythological beliefs but megalithic tombs weren't the only monuments in this landscape for this too was the age of the Stone Circle builders [Music] one
of the most important and famed Neolithic sites in Ireland still survives on the leafy outskirts of Belfast this is the Giant's ring a ceremonial henge Monument consisting of a vast circular Bank 12 ft in height surrounding a central dolman which was the core of a small Passage Tomb the entrance to this compound faces West meaning that processions entered the sacred site from the direction of the Setting Sun nearby is another ceremonial site known as balati created from tall upright posts arranged in a circuit of wooden pillars this wooden henge like similar ones found all over
Britain might have been an openair Temple where corpses were given Back To Nature placed on platforms to be devoured by Scavenging Birds but this is just one idea the reality is anyone's [Music] Guess fascinatingly in recent years great leaps forward in DNA sequencing has suggested that in ancient Ireland the practice of selective breeding may have taken place to either accidentally or purposefully create a ruling cast with distinctive blue eyes and black [Music] care genetic analysis of bone fragments removed from the most prominent Neolithic mounts revealed that the individuals selected for deposition in These Elite settings
had precisely these characteristics the Neolithic remains recovered from the main passage tombs then may reveal the existence of a separate rolling cloud of kings queens or priests like many of the rulers of ancient Egypt and certain other ancient societies these individuals were severely inbred remains recovered from newrange being from a man who was probably the Product of a brother sister Union resembling the so-called God Kings of ancient Egypt where religious cults sanctioned Royal dynasties to form incestuous unions that were Taboo in The Wider [Music] Society the Neolithic remains of a six-month-old baby was interred in
the megalithic Tomb of p nebron in County Clare the skull bore the distinctive proportions of a child with Down Syndrome confirmed by modern genetic [Music] analysis the parents had been siblings and their child had died at a young age reminiscent of similar remains found at the Tomb of the Eagles in orne where disabled children had been cared for and interred in the megalithic Tomb such individuals may have been treated as special touched by the gods perhaps even utilized in shamanic religious Ceremonies it's possible the ruling cast was trying to preserve a unique element in the
Neolithic gene pool if their Cults were based on ancestor worship as the evidence suggests then they could have been trying to maintain the disappearing physical characteristics of the original Mesolithic Hunters the first inhabitants of Ireland if this was the case they were not Successful and by the middle of the third millennium BC their way of life would begin to come to an end for yet more newcomers would arrive on the island bringing new genes and new technology to add to the foundations laid by the tomb Builders and their Hunter ancestors for soon the age of
metal would begin tune in next time as clans of Travelers move along the Atlantic Shores To the emerald aisle altering forever more the culture and genetics of the island laying the foundations for the Bronze Age to come [Music] when Ireland emerged from the Ice Age it was a land granted fragile reprieve from the Frozen emptiness of the north for 10,000 years it nurtured its people People from the Mesolithic Hunters who stalked the wildness to the first invasive farmers of the Neolithic era who raised great monuments of Earth and stone these people provided Ireland with the
animals plants and trees that have sustained and supported the Island's ecosystem ever since [Music] then four and a half Millennia ago Bronze Age settlers would arrive to repopulate Northern Europe and provide Ireland with its ancestral stock these native folk encompassed and adapted all other incoming cultures forming their own Bronze Age [Music] Traditions going on to develop a specific Celtic identity perhaps infused by yet more Warrior bands arriving from foreign [Music] Shores throughout all these ages the Irish have preserved their insular Heritage and ethnic character but no people last forever and no Homeland can survive the
uncertainties of the future perhaps the returning glacial sheets will once again grind South to scour the surface of the land mass in meshing Ireland in another Ice Age in time every trace of Irish culture in its Homeland obliterated beneath a thousand tons of Frozen Rubble but of course many possible Futures await another spurred on by the pursuit of profits and the effect of an Ever Rising Global temperature exhausts the fertile soils to such an extent that they cannot give nutrients to the enfeebled crops anymore starvation and industrial pollution from chemical waste rendering vast regions of
Ireland's Central belt [Music] uninhabitable in time all that the ancient indigenous Irish have worked and strived for for so long lost and forgotten like footprints on a Sandy Shore washed clean by the rising tide this nation and all others alike swept from the surface of the Earth [Music]
