Судлаачид Ирландын баруун өмнөд хэсгийн найман агуйгаас мөстлөгийн үеийн гэж үзэж буй эртний дүрслэлүүдийг олсон нь тус арал дээрх хүний суурьшлын түүхийг хэдэн мянган жилээр урагшлуулах боломжтой байна.
Палеоантропологич Женевьев фон Петзингэрээр ахлуулсан “Lost Land Bridge Project”-ийн багийнхан хиймэл оюун ухааны LIACARA хэмээх тусгай хэрэгслийг ашиглан судалгааны талбараа тодорхойлжээ. Энэхүү систем нь археологийн бүртгэл, газрын зураг, геологийн өгөгдөл болон мөстлөгийн үеийн далайн түвшний өөрчлөлтийн мэдээлэлд дүн шинжилгээ хийж, хүн амьдарч байсан байх магадлалтай цэгүүдийг зааж өгсөн байна. Уг аргачлалын үр дүнд илрүүлсэн 28 агуйгаас наймд нь хуруугаар зурсан хээ, улаан зос болон нүүрсээр дүрсэлсэн амьтны дүрс зэрэг зориудаар үйлдсэн тэмдэглэгээнүүд олджээ.
Уг олдворууд нь Ирландын түүхэнд өмнө нь бүртгэгдэж байгаагүй мөстлөгийн үеийн урлагийн бүтээл байж болзошгүй гэж судлаачид үзэж байна. Хэрэв эдгээр тэмдэглэгээний он цаг 15,000-10,000 жилийн тэртээх үед хамаарч байвал энэ нь хүмүүс тухайн үед Уэльсээс Ирланд руу хуурай газраар буюу үүсээд байсан газрын гүүрээр дамжин нүүдэллэж байсан гэсэн таамаглалыг дэмжих юм.
Судлаачид олдворуудын үнэн зөв болон он цагийг баталгаажуулахын тулд радиокарбон, раманы спектроскопи, ураны цувааны шинжилгээ зэрэг техникийн нарийн аргуудыг ашиглахаар төлөвлөж байна. Мөн олдворуудаас эртний ДНХ-ийн шинжилгээ хийхээр зорьж байгаа ч эдгээр нь одоогоор урьдчилсан таамаглалын шатанд байгаа бөгөөд цаашид нарийвчилсан судалгаа шаардлагатай юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Markings recently discovered inside eight caves in southwest Ireland could push back the timeline of human settlement on the island by several thousand years. Researchers behind the find believe the traces, if confirmed, would represent the earliest known Ice Age cave art ever recorded in Ireland. The team suspects the artists may have reached Ireland on foot, crossing a since vanished land bridge from Wales.
For decades, Ireland has held a peculiar place in the story of prehistoric Europe, it was thought to be one of the last corners of the northwest to be settled by early humans, arriving long after their counterparts had already spread across Britain and the continent. That picture rests on a small, fragile body of evidence, consisting of bones bearing cut marks rather than the paintings and engravings found elsewhere.
This is precisely why the new discovery matters. Cave art from the period is essentially unheard of in Ireland, and any confirmed dating within the 15,000 to 10,000 year range would not simply add a data point. It would force a reconsideration of how, and when, people first arrived there. The project, called the Lost Land Bridge Project, is led by palaeoanthropologist and rock art specialist Genevieve von Petzinger, working alongside George Nash and Barbara Oosterwijk.
What Was Found in the Caves?
Working across southwest Ireland this past summer, the researchers documented intentional markings that fall into a few distinct categories. Among them are finger flutings, lines traced by hand through the soft, malleable surface of cave walls, as well as marks made with ochre and charcoal, some of which appear to depict animal silhouettes.
The finger flutings, in particular, caught the team’s attention as a possible chronological clue. According to von Petzinger, over 90% of known sites containing this kind of marking date to the Ice Age. She also noted that outside of famous “show caves” such as Altamira in Spain or Lascaux in France, researchers typically only turn up scratchings or the faint remnants of paintings, making the southwest Ireland sites unusually rich by comparison.
To confirm what they’ve found, the team plans a battery of technical tests, like radiocarbon dating of the charcoal, Raman spectroscopy on the red pigment, and uranium series dating of calcite deposits. They also intend to attempt ancient DNA analysis on the finger flutings themselves, using a method von Petzinger previously tested at a site in Málaga, Spain.
The Land Bridge Theory
As reported by a BBC report, the search for cave art in Ireland didn’t happen by chance. It grew out of a hypothesis that falling sea levels during the Late Ice Age reshaped the coastline around Ireland, potentially opening a walkable route between the island and Wales. The idea draws on earlier geological work, including the BRITICE Glacial Mapping Project, though von Petzinger stresses it remains unproven.
The reasoning gains some support from Wales itself, where rock art at the sea cave Bacon Hole has recently been dated to at least 17,100 years ago, making it the oldest confirmed rock art in northwestern Europe. As von Petzinger put it to The Art Newspaper:
“If humans lived in Wales during the Ice Age, why not walk across when it was close?”
An AI System Guided the Search
Rather than surveying caves at random, the team relied on an artificial intelligence tool called LIACARA, the Living Intelligent Archive of Ancient Culture, Art, and Relational Archaeology, which von Petzinger herself designed. The system draws on archaeological records, maps, images and published research, and the team fed it additional data on limestone formations, water sources, and historical sea and glacier levels.
“We taught AI to hand us a heat map of places most likely to have the converging factors that could lead to caves and human presence,” Von Petzinger described.
Of the 28 caves LIACARA flagged as promising, the team physically inspected each one. Eight contained markings judged worthy of closer study. The exact locations are being kept confidential to protect the sites.
The team has said it eventually intends to make LIACARA openly accessible, describing it as a tool meant to help researchers connect scattered evidence, identify patterns, and trace conclusions directly back to the underlying data.
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