10,000-years-ago Irish Hunter-Gatherers Were Dark-Skinned. [View all]

'RTÉ, Ireland’s National Television and Radio Broadcaster, recently brought to our screens filmmaker Katrina Costello’s bold and groundbreaking two-part documentary – The Burren: Heart of Stone . Thirteen years in the making, the docuseries confirms the story of evolution, humanity’s African origins and that prehistoric Irish people, hunter-gatherers from 10,000 years ago, were dark-skinned and had blue eyes.

Located in the countryside of County Clare in southwest Ireland, the Burren has always been a place full of intrigue and mystery, replete with deep caves, rocky and stony landscapes (from where the titular name originates), dominated by glaciated karst. It is also renowned for its historic ancient Dolmens, from the early Neolithic. Narrated by legendary Irish actor and performer, Brendan Gleeson, the documentary explores the question of whether the modern Irish have descended from this era of pre-historic hunter-gatherers.

The Science of DNA in the Ancient Irish
While the first part is a fabulous documentation about the ecology and geology of the Burren, landscape formation and the shells of ancient marine creatures embedded beneath many layers, our focus is on the second part of this riveting documentary. Titled Symphony of Life , it prominently features professionals and experts, such as the geneticist Dr. Lara Cassidy, from the highly reputed Trinity College Dublin, who sheds light on the process of DNA sequencing (also known as Sanger’s method).

In layman terms, one of the key contributions of DNA sequencing is performing genetic mapping to help understand disease, for example in a DNA pool, or for our purposes, ancestry. The episode focuses on the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer population, who were dark-skinned and had blue eyes, and occupied the region some 10,000 years ago, only to be replaced by another wave of inhabitants 4,000 years later. DNA examination of bones showed the Irish hunter-gatherer people had dark or black skin with blue eyes. They were taller than the sallow-skinned farmers and builders who replaced them.'>>>

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/irish-0015225?