* Astronomy

 6,000-year-old settlement poses tsunami mystery 

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of pre-farming people living in the Burren more than 6,000 years ago - one of the oldest habitations ever unearthed in Ireland. Radiocarbon dating of a shellfish midden on Fanore Beach in north Clare have revealed it to be at least 6,000 years old - hundreds of years older than the nearby Poulnabrone dolmen. 
The midden - a cooking area where nomad hunter-gatherers boiled or roasted shellfish - contained Stone Age implements, including two axes and a number of smaller stone tools. 
Excavation of the site revealed a mysterious black layer of organic material, which archaeologists believe may be the results of a Stone Age tsunami which hit the Clare coast, possibly wiping out the people who used the midden.
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