Archaeologists have found significant evidence that people lived, travelled, and prayed in the bogs of Co Offaly from around 2,500 BC, a thousand years earlier than previously documented.
The evidence, which was found buried in the county's bogs, included a burial site, a perfectly preserved longbow and a canoe, all dating from the late neolithic and early Bronze Age.
Mr Conor McDermott, director of the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit (IAWU), which surveyed the bogs, said humans were in the Offaly area from 7,000 BC, a fact known because of the discovery of a habitation at Lough Boora, near Kilcormac.
Previous work by the IAWU, which is part of UCD's Department of Archaeology, found evidence of human activity in the Offaly bogs from around 1600 BC, even though they suspected people were active in the area for a lot longer.
In a survey carried out last year, however, the IAWU discovered material that showed humans were active in the area for at least a millennium more - from around 2,500 BC.
They carried out surveys, commissioned by Dúchas, the Heritage Service, on six bogs in east Offaly and southern Westmeath last summer. These bogs were in Bord na Móna's Derrygreenagh Works, and included Esker, Cavemount, Derryhinch, Daingean, Clonad and Ballybeg bogs.
In Ballybeg, the archaeologists found the greatest diversity of sites and artefacts, an article by the IAWU published in Archaeology Ireland magazine stated. One site had a circle of stones with evidence of burning, which they believe to be a barrow, a funeral site.
A finely crafted wooden animal yoke - a crossbar with two U-shaped pieces that encircle the necks of a pair of oxen or other draft animals working together - was also found. Mr McDermott said it dated from the Iron Age.
He said an "exquisitely crafted" longbow was also found, which was "certainly likely to be from the prehistoric period" and could be the oldest, most intact longbow found in the State.
The prehistoric period in Ireland, he said, dates from AD 500 to as far as 7,500 BC. While there is a lack of information once you leave the historical record, the bog perfectly preserves material, including organic material, such as the wood from the longbow, he said.
The IAWU survey recorded more than 530 previously unknown sites and artefacts. As a result of the survey, Mr McDermott said the archaeologists were struck by how much the bog landscape was an important feature in the everyday lives of the people who travelled across it and who lived near or often on it.
Wetlands and drylands, which are now thought of as separate landscapes, were complementary parts of the same overall landscape for early inhabitants, the survey shows. The survey of the bogs was part of the archaeological survey of Ireland.
