The Woman of the Burren: Technology and research offers unrivalled picture of Clare's earliest farmers

DNA research is revealing new information about prehistoric people in Ireland, as explained in arecent documentary on the Burren. Here, Clodagh Finn explains how cutting-edge technology coupled with archaeological research offers an unrivalled picture of the earliest farmers in Co Clare

The Burren, County Clare, Ireland

IF SHE were alive today, the Woman of the Burren — let us call her that after the place she was found — would look most like a woman from modern-day Sardinia. Analysis of her DNA tells us that. The same scientific data suggests that she wasn’t very tall, genetically speaking at least, but she was certainly strong and exceptionally healthy.

Her bones confirm that she lived to be at least 55 years old, several decades more than the average woman could expect to survive in the fourth millennium BC.