Native Irish

Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) Hunter-Gatherers

• BBC: Cheddar Man: DNA shows early Briton had dark skin👈

 The “Short, Dark" Fir Bolg (FEER BUL-ug) Men of Bags or Bag-men of Irish Mythology

The earliest known people to live in Ireland were nomadic (they moved from place to place instead of living in one home).  They were Mesolithic foragers—which means they lived in the Middle Stone Age and survived by hunting animals, fishing, and gathering wild plants and insects.

They came to Ireland around 8000 BCE (or BC). We know this from archaeological dating, which means studying old tools, bones, burials, or buildings left behind.

DNA from their burial sites shows they were:

• Short in height

• Had dark skin (were not Caucasian, or pale-skinned, or “white")

• Had blue or green eyes (the genes for which are theorized to have appeared as adaptation to cave living or troglodytic lifestyle)

• Had long legs

These traits have been confirmed in the DNA of Mesolithic Irish remains.  Modern Irish DNA only shows faint traces of these hunter-gatherers, suggesting rapid replacement by the next invading group (and little intermarriage and mixing), so it suggests these hunter-gatherers fled or were entirely destroyed by the next arrivals, but they were the sole humans in Ireland, the true “natives" Ireland, for 3,000 years before the next migrants arrived.  

In Irish mythology, this group is remembered as the Fir Bolg (say it: FEER BUL-ug).  The myths describe them as short and dark, which may come from memories of these early people.  According to the stories, when a second group of people came by sea and took the island by force, the Fir Bolg fled.  They went to Greece, where they were enslaved and forced to carry bags of dirt.  That’s why they were called “bag-men.”  The legend says five of them escaped and later returned to Ireland, hoping to reclaim their home.

Relative Deep Time:

That's about 10,000 years before present during the time all humans lived as foragers on earth (about 13,000 years after the height of the last Ice Age). They arrived about 1,000 years after the Neolithic Agrarian [farming] Revolution in Mesopotamia began, about 2,000 years after Caucasian [pale-skinned] people first appeared on earth, around 3,000 years before the Egyptian and Sumerian Civilizations began, and 1,500 years before Greek Civilization began. 

These hunter-gatherers may have influenced the first archaeoastronomical (how ancient people used the stars, sun, and moon in their buildings, calendars, and beliefs; this sub-field of archaeology looks at how old sites [like stone circles or temples] were built to line up with things in the sky and certain times of year or remembered events, like the sunrise on Halloween) alignment of a dolmen burial at Listoghil with the sun on Samhain (SAW-win or SOW-win). Its earliest construction dates to 6,100 BCE or (8,100 years before present) suggesting that October 31st/November 1st may have already been important to the original inhabitants of Ireland.  You'll discover more about the ancient origins of Halloween on other pages and this alignment in particular.   

Roughly, the first third of Irish DNA mostly comes from the Early European Farmers, with faint traces of the earlier “dark" Irish hunter-gatherers, suggesting rapid dis- and re- placement genetically whether they were destroyed or fled.

The “Dark" Irish

Some people today mistakenly believe that the “dark” Irish (Irish people with darker hair, eyes, or skin tones) are descended from African slaves.  Others wrongly think that stories about dark-skinned original Irish people were made up to hide African ancestry.  But this is not true.

Yes, there were some African slaves in Ireland during the time of the African slave trade, but very few. That’s because at that time, many Irish people were already enserfed—which means they were tied to the land and forced to farm for a lord, almost like property.  Thus, there weren't enough African slaves to explain the “dark" Irish in the first place as the people forced to do the kind of work  done by African slaves were Irish mostly.   

Also, we know from DNA and archaeology that the first people who lived in Ireland were not Caucasian (not pale-skinned).  It's because the oral tradition of the “dark" Irish was actually true.  They were “native" Irish in that their ancestors were the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, and they had dark skin and blue or green eyes—long before the African slave trade ever began.

Here, the original platform shown on bottom, dates from 4,100 BCE (6,100 years before present) and was clearly constructed by the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.  Further there is a possible earlier phase of construction from a radiocarbon date from a skull of 5,550 BCE (~7,500 years before present).   Clearly, this site was important to hunter-gatherers as a burial site.   However, the free-standing dolmen chamber and original stone circle were constructed between 3,600-3,550 BCE, and the addition of the cairn (rock mound) mound was around 3,200 BCE (about 5,200 years before present).  

Thus, the original construction took place between 7,500-6,1000 years ago and must be associated with the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, but the subsequent additional construction from around 5,600-5,200 BCE is associated with the Early European Farmers.   

Source: Internet Archaeology: A Possible Astronomical Alignment Marking Seasonal Transitions at Listoghil, Sligo, Ireland👈  

• Image 👈 (aerial [from above] photo above, right👆) 

• Image 👈 (profile [side view] illustration view, above 👆)

• Image 👈(dolmen burial close-up below👇) 

Neolithic (New Stone Age) Early European Farmers (EEF)

• Ancestral Whispers Visualization👈
• Wiki: Early European Farmers 👈

The “Monstrous Sea Demon" Fomóire (foh-MOH-ra or foh-MOH-ree-uh)  or Fomarian Invaders from the Sea 

Fomóire means “undersea ones” or “sea giants.”  In Irish mythology, the Fomarians (Anglicized, converted into English) were sea-faring beings who arrived by boat from the south and later fought with other invading groups.

Between 5000 and 4000 BCE (over 6,000 years ago), during the Early Copper Age, farming people came to Ireland.  There is evidence of the dispersal (spreading out) of farming by about 3800 BCE introduced by these people.  

DNA from burials shows they sailed from places like southern Spain and Sardinia (the bottom of the two islands between France and Italy), and likely to have came across open ocean in boats, crossing the Celtic Sea from the Brittany Peninsula of France.  This is unlike the path taken of the EEF into England and was a separate migration it appears.  And it's also unlike the Irish arrivals that followed them across the much narrower English Channel through England and Scotland by land to Ireland. 

This sea route matches ancient Irish myths that describe an invasion from the ocean.  These farmers originally came from the Middle East, where farming was first invented.  They brought with them: wheat and barley, cattle, and pottery.  They were descendants (children) of the Natufians—the first people to tame plants and animals during the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age).  

This change is called the Neolithic Agrarian Revolution, when farming began to replace hunting and gathering.  That revolution helped lead to the first great civilizations, like Greece, Egypt, and Sumer, as people spread west from Mesopotamia (the fertile crescent of the Middle East) because of climate changes.

These early farmers also built megalithic tombs (grave sites made from large stones) and stone circles like the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.  They may have learned some of these burial and stone traditions from Ireland’s earlier people, the afore-mentioned mythical Fir Bolg, who were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers already living on the island.

The foundations (bases) of the earliest (oldest) burial mounds and dolmen burials (say: DOLL-men — flat stones balanced on others like a stone table or altar over an open above-ground burial) dating from about 8,100 years before now (around 6100 BCE) to 5,700 years before now (3,700 BCEa) are linked to both groups with hunter-gatherer foundations, and EEF burial mounds and passages.   The actual dolmen passage tombs and passage mound burials are associated with the newcomers, the EEF.  

But these traditions seem to have continued and changed after the second group—the farmers—arrived.  Thus some theorize the pantheon (group of gods) and cosmology (spiritual ideas about the world) of the Celts was influenced by both groups, and it appears that the earliest archaeological evidence associated with Samhain is there at the Carrowmore Megalithic Complex in Sligo County, Ireland.   

Scientists have studied ancient DNA from EEF burial sites, and it confirms the myth. These farmers came by sea, skipping over England and Scotland, and landed directly in Ireland, although a second migration of EEF did take place into England following that route later.  

When they arrived, they defeated, and dis- (caused them to flee) or re- placed (after their destruction) the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.  The hunter-gatherers either fled or were wiped out, because their DNA is almost gone from modern Irish people.  This means there was very little intermarriage or mixing between the two groups.

Today, most of the first third of Irish DNA comes from these Early European Farmers, with only a small trace from the older Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.

Relative Deep Time:

That was about 7,000 years ago, during a time when widespread domestication (the taming and breeding of plants and animals for human use) and agriculture (intensive farming) were taking hold across the world. These changes brought about settled village life and the rise of metallurgy (metal working).

The arrival of these early farmers in Ireland happened around the same time that:

• Sumerian settlements like Eridu and Uruk began to emerge (c. 5300–4000 BCE),

• Farming communities with copper tools and the first burials with grave goods appeared along the Nile River in Egypt (in the Predynastic period, including the Badarian and Naqada I cultures—just before the Old Kingdom, when the Great Pyramids of Giza were built),

• The city of Mehrgarh was thriving in South Asia, laying the foundation for the Harappan Civilization of India,

• Early Chinese civilization was developing along the Yellow River,

• In South America, Peruvian cultures such as those leading to the Chavín were forming, based on potato domestication, and

• In Mesoamerica (Middle America — between North and South America, especially Mexico), corn, squash, beans, and tomatoes were being domesticated.

• Nature: The genomic history of southeastern Europe👈
• PNAS:  Neolithic and Bronze Age migration to Ireland and establishment of the insular Atlantic genome👈

The Listoghil Dolmen Burial at the Carrowmore Megalithic Complex (County Sligo, Ireland) has an indisputable alignment with the Samhain sun at sunrise.  

The earliest construction there significantly predates arrival of the Early European Farmers and suggests possibly that October 31/November 1 was important to these hunter-gatherers, although the later construction's alignments indicate that Samhain was indisputably important to these farming people.  Marking or recording the passage of time was critical to knowing when to plant and harvest to farming people.

While the original burials and platform are associated with the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, subsequent construction there would have been by the Early European Farmers.  

It’s possible that when the Early European Farmers (EEF) came to new places, they learned and used some of the old beliefs and burial customs from the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (people who hunted animals and gathered wild plants).  We don’t know for sure if the EEF’s sun-based religion (called a solar cult) came from the hunter-gatherers or if they made it up themselves. Scientists still argue about this, and it’s still a mystery.

We know that very old hunter-gatherer sites from all over the world sometimes line up with the sun, moon, or stars.  These special archaeoastronomical alignments (when buildings or stones point to things in the sky) show that even early people needed to track time.  This helped them know when the seasons were changing and when animals would move, so they could find food.

So, it’s possible that the Early European Farmers (EEF) adopted (took in), blended (mixed), and changed some of the older beliefs of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.  This kind of thing happens a lot in history when two different groups meet. Both groups often learn from each other, and both sides change a little. That same pattern probably happened even long ago—before writing existed—deep in prehistory (the time before people wrote things down).

The following image is of the Listoghil Dolmen at Carrowmore, and this part was constructed by the EEF people ca 5,600-5,200 years before present.