Editing Ireland (section)

===Prehistoric Ireland===
{{main|Prehistoric Ireland}}
During the [[last glacial period]], and until about 16,000 BC, much of Ireland was periodically covered in ice.<ref name="National Museum" /> The [[relative sea level]] was less than 50m lower resulting in an [[ice bridge]] (but not a [[land bridge]]) forming between Ireland and Great Britain.<ref name="Marine Geology">{{cite journal |last1=Andrew Cooper & D. Jackson |title=Sea-level change and inner shelf stratigraphy off Northern Ireland |url=https://www.academia.edu/59661731 |journal=Marine Geology |date=2006 |volume=232 |issue=1–2 |page=1 |doi=10.1016/j.margeo.2006.04.002 |bibcode=2006MGeol.232....1K |s2cid=128396341 |access-date=25 February 2022 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418081744/https://www.academia.edu/59661731 |url-status=live }}</ref> By 14,000 BC this ice bridge existed only between Northern Ireland and Scotland and by 12,000 BC Ireland was completely separated from Great Britain.<ref name="drowning">Edwards, Robin & al. "[http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/40560/Edwards&Brooks_INJ08_TARA.pdf?sequence=1 The Island of Ireland: Drowning the Myth of an Irish Land-bridge?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319234651/http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/40560/1/Edwards%26Brooks_INJ08_TARA.pdf |date=19 March 2014 }}" Accessed 15 February 2013.</ref> Later, around 6,100 BC, Great Britain became separated from continental Europe.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lane |first1=Megan |title=The moment Britain became an island |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12244964 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=19 July 2017 |archive-date=7 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707152005/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12244964 |url-status=live }}</ref> Until recently, the earliest evidence of human activity in Ireland was dated at 12,500 years ago, demonstrated by a butchered bear bone found in a cave in [[County Clare]].<ref name="BBC2016-03-21">{{cite news|date=21 March 2016|title=Earliest evidence of humans in Ireland|publisher=[[BBC News]]|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35863186|access-date=21 March 2016|archive-date=3 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403033840/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35863186|url-status=live}}</ref> Since 2021, the earliest evidence of human activity in Ireland is dated to 33,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Roseingrave|first=Louise|date=18 April 2021|title=Reindeer bone found in north Cork to alter understanding of Irish human history|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40269116.html|access-date=24 April 2021|website=Irish Examiner|language=en|archive-date=22 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422022106/https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40269116.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

By about 8,000 BC, more sustained occupation of the island has been shown, with evidence for [[Mesolithic]] communities around the island.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Driscoll |first1=Killian |title=The early prehistory in the west of Ireland: Investigations into the social archaeology of the Mesolithic, west of the Shannon, Ireland |url=http://lithicsireland.ie/mlitt_mesolithic_west_ireland_chap_1.html |website=LithicsIreland.ie |publisher=Lithics Ireland Consultancy |access-date=19 July 2017 |archive-date=19 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019121446/http://lithicsireland.ie/mlitt_mesolithic_west_ireland_chap_1.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some time before 4,000 BC, [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic]] [[Early European Farmers|settlers]] introduced cereal [[cultivar]]s, domesticated animals such as cattle and sheep, built large timber buildings, and stone monuments.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooney |first1=Gabriel |title=Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-16977-6}}</ref><ref name="National Museum" /> The earliest evidence for farming in Ireland or Great Britain is from [[Ferriter's Cove]], [[County Kerry]], where a flint knife, cattle bones and a sheep's tooth were [[Radiocarbon dating|carbon-dated]] to {{circa|4,350 BC}}.<ref name="Ireland's DNA">{{cite web |title=Prehistoric Genocide in Ireland? |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/genetic-ancestry/guff_documents/Genocide_in_Ireland.pdf |website=Ireland's DNA |access-date=27 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411233025/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/genetic-ancestry/guff_documents/Genocide_in_Ireland.pdf |archive-date=11 April 2019}}</ref> Field systems were developed in different parts of Ireland, including at the {{lang|ga|[[Céide Fields]]}}, that has been preserved beneath a blanket of peat in present-day [[Tyrawley]]. An extensive [[field system]], arguably the oldest in the world,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/west/ceidefields/ |title=Céide Fields |author=Heritage Ireland |publisher=Office of Public Works |access-date=23 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150302095051/http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/West/CeideFields/ |archive-date=2 March 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> consisted of small divisions separated by [[dry-stone wall]]s. The fields were farmed for several centuries between 3,500 BC and 3,000 BC. [[Wheat]] and [[barley]] were the principal crops.<ref name="National Museum">{{Cite web |title=Prehistoric Details |url=https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Irish-Antiquities-Division-Collections/Collections-List-(1)/Stone-Age/Prehistoric-Details |url-status=live |access-date=12 February 2023 |website=National Museum of Ireland |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005054953/https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Irish-Antiquities-Division-Collections/Collections-List-(1)/Stone-Age/Prehistoric-Details |archive-date=5 October 2022}}</ref>

The [[Bronze Age]] began around 2,500 BC, with technology changing people's everyday lives during this period through innovations such as the wheel, harnessing [[oxen]], [[weaving|weaving textiles]], brewing [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] and [[metalworking]],<ref name="National Museum" /> which produced new weapons and tools, along with fine gold decoration and jewellery, such as [[brooch]]es and [[torc]]s.

====Emergence of Celtic Ireland====
How and when the island became Celtic has been debated for close to a century, with the migrations of the Celts being one of the more enduring themes of archaeological and linguistic studies. The most recent genetic research strongly associates the spread of [[Indo-European languages]] (including Celtic) through Western Europe with a people bringing a composite [[Beaker culture]], with its arrival in Britain and Ireland dated to around the middle of the third millennium BC.<ref name="Reich 2018 115">{{cite book |last=Reich |first=David |title=Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past |year=2018 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-882125-0 |page=115}}</ref> According to [[John T. Koch]] and others, Ireland in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-network culture called the [[Atlantic Bronze Age]] that also included Britain, western France and Iberia, and that this is where [[Celtic languages]] developed.<ref name="Koch">{{cite web |url=http://www.wales.ac.uk/Resources/Documents/Research/ODonnell.pdf |title=O'Donnell Lecture 2008 Appendix |access-date=27 May 2010 |archive-date=9 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709032557/http://www.wales.ac.uk/Resources/Documents/Research/ODonnell.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Koch2009">{{cite journal |last=Koch |first=John |title=Tartessian: Celtic from the Southwest at the Dawn of History |journal=Palaeohispanica |volume=9 (Acta Palaeohispanica X) |date=2009 |pages=339–351 |url=http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf |issn=1578-5386 |access-date=17 May 2010 |archive-date=23 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100623034727/http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book <!--Not in reference |last=Cunliffe, Karl, Guerra, McEvoy, Bradley; Oppenheimer, Rrvik, Isaac, Parsons, Koch, Freeman and Wodtko--> |editor1=John T. Koch |editor2=Barry Cunliffe |title=Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature |date=2010 |publisher=Oxbow Books and Celtic Studies Publications |isbn=978-1-84217-529-3 |page=384 |url=http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/celtic-from-the-west-2.html |access-date=28 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |title=A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 75, 2009, pp. 55–64 |date=2008 |publisher=The Prehistoric Society |page=61}}</ref> This contrasts with the traditional view that their origin lies in mainland Europe with the [[Hallstatt culture]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-arrival-of-the-celts-in-ireland/|title=The Arrival of the Celts in Ireland|publisher=Penn Museum|year=1979|last=Burton|first=Holly|access-date=12 December 2020|archive-date=27 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127185040/https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-arrival-of-the-celts-in-ireland/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Uragh Stone Circle.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Uragh Stone Circle|The Uragh Stone Circle]], a [[Neolithic]] [[stone circle]] in [[Tuosist]], close to Gleninchaquin Park, [[County Kerry]]]]
The long-standing traditional view is that the Celtic language, [[Ogham]] script and culture were brought to Ireland by waves of invading or migrating [[Celts]] from mainland Europe. This theory draws on the ''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'', a medieval Christian pseudo-history of Ireland, along with the presence of Celtic culture, language and artefacts found in Ireland such as Celtic bronze spears, shields, torcs and other finely crafted Celtic associated possessions. The theory holds that there were four separate Celtic invasions of Ireland. The [[Priteni]] were said to be the first, followed by the [[Belgae]] from northern Gaul and Britain. Later, Laighin tribes from Armorica (present-day Brittany) were said to have invaded Ireland and Britain more or less simultaneously. Lastly, the [[Milesians (Irish)|Milesians]] ([[Gaels]]) were said to have reached Ireland from either northern Iberia or southern Gaul.<ref>''The Celts: A History'', by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin</ref> It was claimed that a second wave named the Euerni, belonging to the Belgae people of northern Gaul, began arriving about the sixth century BC. They were said to have given their name to the island.<ref>Early Peoples of Britain and Ireland: A-G Christopher Allen Snyder</ref><ref>"A History of Ireland: From the Earliest Times to 1922" By Edmund Curtis</ref>

The theory was advanced in part because of the lack of archaeological evidence for large-scale Celtic immigration, though it is accepted that such movements are notoriously difficult to identify. Historical linguists are skeptical that this method alone could account for the absorption of Celtic language, with some saying that an assumed processual view of Celtic linguistic formation is 'an especially hazardous exercise'.<ref>{{cite book |last=Waddell |first=John |title=Ireland in the Bronze Age |publisher=Irish Government Stationery Office |date=April 1995 |location=Dublin |url=http://www.nuigalway.ie/archaeology/oldsite/documents/jw_celts.pdf |archive-date=19 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319230912/http://www.nuigalway.ie/archaeology/oldsite/documents/jw_celts.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Waddell |first=John |title=The Question of the Celticization of Ireland |publisher=Emania |date=September 1992 |url=http://www.nuigalway.ie/archaeology/oldsite/documents/jw_celticization_of_ire.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721151900/http://www.nuigalway.ie/archaeology/oldsite/documents/jw_celticization_of_ire.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2015}}</ref> Genetic lineage investigation into the area of Celtic migration to Ireland has led to findings that showed no significant differences in [[mitochondrial DNA]] between Ireland and large areas of continental Europe, in contrast to parts of the Y-chromosome pattern. When taking both into account, a study concluded that modern Celtic speakers in Ireland could be thought of as European "Atlantic Celts" showing a shared ancestry throughout the Atlantic zone from northern Iberia to western Scandinavia rather than substantially central European.<ref>{{cite journal |pmc=1182057 |title=The Longue Durée of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe |pmid=15309688 |doi=10.1086/424697 |volume=75 |issue=4 |date=October 2004 |journal=[[American Journal of Human Genetics]] |pages=693–702 |last1=McEvoy |first1=B. |last2=Richards |first2=M. |last3=Forster |first3=P. |last4=Bradley |first4=D.G.}}</ref>
In 2012, research showed that the occurrence of genetic markers for the earliest farmers was almost eliminated by Beaker-culture immigrants: they carried what was then a new Y-chromosome R1b marker, believed to have originated in Iberia about 2,500 BC. The prevalence amongst modern Irish men of this mutation is a remarkable 84%, the highest in the world, and closely matched in other populations along the Atlantic fringes down to Spain. A similar genetic replacement happened with lineages in mitochondrial DNA.<ref name="Ireland's DNA"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hay |first1=Maciamo |title=Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA) |url=http://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplogroup_R1b_Y-DNA.shtml |website=Eupedia |access-date=1 August 2015 |archive-date=22 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150822060129/http://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplogroup_R1b_Y-DNA.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> This conclusion is supported by recent research carried out by the geneticist [[David Reich (geneticist)|David Reich]], who says: "British and Irish skeletons from the Bronze Age that followed the Beaker period had at most 10 per cent ancestry from the first farmers of these islands, with other 90 per cent from people like those associated with the Bell Beaker culture in the Netherlands." He suggests that it was Beaker users who introduced an Indo-European language, represented here by Celtic (i.e. a new language and culture introduced directly by migration and genetic replacement).<ref name="Reich 2018 115"/>