Revealing the Past 2023: In search of the elusive Palaeolithic in Ireland

In this talk, Richard Jennings discusses the recent and continuing research of the Castlepook Cave Project. Castlepook Cave in north Co. Cork once contained sediments and animal bones that accumulated inside during the Pleistocene. The cave was excavated in the early decades of last century. Dr Ruth Carden has identified bones with clear evidence of human modifications. When the cave was last explored in the 1970s it was reported that the past excavations had removed much of the sediments, but the explorers discovered new chambers that have been untouched. The Castlepook Cave Project is applying a suite of mapping, geophysical surveying, excavation, and post-excavation techniques using the latest technologies to unlock the secrets of this cave.