The bone fragment was found with chop marks from a flint or stone tool.
Interestingly, in this cave, a bone of a spotted hyena and other animals were found. Scientists believe that spotted hyenas migrated from Britain to Ireland around 45-30,000 years ago.
 |
| Scientists believe that spotted hyenas migrated from Britain to Ireland around 45-30,000 years ago. National Museum of Ireland |
Previously, animal bones excavated from a cave in the west of Ireland in 1903, included the bone of a brown bear, a predator which would have weighed about 350 kilos. |
| A hind leg reindeer femur, bone fragment found at Castlepook Cave near Doneraile in north Cork, Ireland, establishes human activity in Ireland 33,000 years ago |
From 32,000 until 16,000 BP (before present) most of Ireland and Britain were covered by ice. Until 16.000 BP, southeast Ireland was probably connected to southwest Britain by a narrow landbridge.
During the height of the last ice age, the thickest sections of the ice-sheet covering Ireland, were likely up to a depth of one-and-a-half kilometers thick.
These Arctic conditions would have forced the migration of all mammals to warmer places. About 20.000 years ago, the global sea level was more than 400 feet lower than it is today.
From 14,000 years ago, Ireland is thought to have become virtually ice-free, but without a landbridge, watercraft of some variety would have been required by colonizers.Modern humans moved from Africa into Europe starting about 48,000 years ago. They lived in Europe, overlapping with Neanderthals for many millennia.