In the hunt for clues of menus past

I HAVE always been interested in how people lived and what they ate in prehistoric times, particularly in the middle and early stone ages before farming.

It’s not only an interesting subject, I think it’s an important one.

It is not possible to say how old we are as a species because the point where you draw the line between hominid ape and human being is arbitrary. But we’ve certainly been around for more than 100,000 years, and some experts would say a couple of million. But agriculture first appeared in several parts of the world, simultaneously and independently, between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. And it didn’t reach Ireland until six thousand years ago.