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Meet Cheddar Man: First modern Britons had dark skin and blue eyes


Frogurt

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(Channel 4/Plimsoll Productions photo by London Natural History Museum)

 

They call him Cheddar Man.

 

He lived more than 10,000 years ago, had brown hair, blue eyes and “dark to black†skin. To the surprise of many, he is believed to have been the first modern Briton.

 

A new project from London's Natural History Museum and University College London has revealed groundbreaking DNA results that give a much clearer image of early British inhabitants. Cheddar Man's skeleton was discovered in 1903 in Gough's Cave, located in Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, England. It is thought that the cool temperature in the cave helped to preserve the skeleton's valuable DNA.

 

“If the body was deposited in a good environment, where there was a cool and constant temperature, then the petrous bone is a good place to find useful ancient DNA,†said the Natural History Museum's Selina Brace, who specializes in the study of ancient DNA. Scientists obtained DNA from Cheddar Man by drilling a 2-millimeter hole in his skull and extracting bone powder.

 

Initially, it was assumed that the man, who died in his 20s, had pale skin, but new analysis and facial reconstruction have revealed quite the opposite. It is now believed that Cheddar Man’s ancestors arrived in Britain via the Middle East after leaving Africa.

 

“Cheddar Man is special because he represents the population occupying Europe at the time,†said Tom Booth, a bio-archaeologist at the museum. “They had dark skin, and most of them had pigmented eyes, either blue or green.†Data and software used in forensics gave Booth and the team a clearer understanding of Cheddar Man's skin pigmentation and how dark it was.  The investigation into the skeletal remains revealed that Cheddar Man had "genetic markers of skin pigmentation usually associated with sub-Saharan Africa."

 

“Cheddar Man's skeleton revealed damage to the front of the skull, which led us to believe he had a violent death. But when we looked again, it appeared likely that the damage occurred since being dug up,† Booth explained. â€œIt's quite hard to figure out from the bones how he died, as most illnesses don't leave a trace on human remains.â€

 

Using 3-D printing,  Adrie and Alfons Kennis were able to bring Cheddar Man to life. The model took several months to build and is described as “truly unique.†Booth described their work as “amazing†and said the two brothers are skilled “wizards†who were able to bring years of hard work and research to life.

 

Experts say the ancestor was a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer who would have spent his days carving tools, fishing and hunting animals. Researchers say he was around 166 centimeters (5'4 inches) in height. It is believed that Cheddar Man is related to 1 in 10 people living across the United Kingdom today. (Booth also said that, ironically, Cheddar Man was lactose intolerant.)

 

“Cheddar Man existed before farming had spread to Britain. By looking, we can tell he would have been unable to digest raw milk,†Booth said.

 

It didn't take long for Cheddar Man to trend worldwide on Twitter. Reactions to the extraordinary findings were mixed. Some praised the work of those involved with the reconstruction of Britain's oldest skeleton.

 

“Some excellent work by some brilliant colleagues — dark skinned and blue eyed Cheddar Man, one of the first successful colonizers of Britain. How cool is this?†one Twitter user said.

 

Others focused on the racial tension in Britain and pointed out that perhaps not all Brits would be happy about their ties to the ancient human.

 

“Oh my. There's going to be some very unhappy racist Britons out there today,†read one tweet.

 

In true British style, many social media users reacted to Wednesday's news with celebrity comparisons and cheese-related puns that did not disappoint.

 

“Cheddar man: Black Britons date fromages ago,†tweeted one user.

 

Despite the scientific development, some appeared to be disheartened to discover that the Cheddar Man trending topic was unrelated to food.

 

“Quite disappointed seeing that 'Cheddar Man' is trending to find out that the first Briton wasn't in fact made of cheese,†one tweeted.

 

 

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, television personality Piers Morgan was quick to compare the ancient fossil to successful business magnate Lord Alan Sugar.

 

 

 

British station Channel 4 will air a TV documentary titled “The First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000-Year-Old Man†next week.  The documentary was filmed last summer.

 

Booth, who worked on the project for almost four years, said the Cheddar Man story is far from over. â€œThe great thing is, because he's so well preserved, we'll be able to get more and more data from Cheddar Man all the time,†he said.

 

In the future, Booth said, “we'll be seeking more information on Cheddar's diet, lifestyle and taking a look at common diseases from this time period.â€

 

“We don't have any other complete skeletons from this period,†he said. “They're usually in bits and pieces. Therefore, we're determined to use Cheddar to find out as much as we can. He'll definitely leave a great legacy.â€

 

Cheddar Man's complete skeleton has been lent to the museum and is currently on display.

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Makes sense, skin color correlates to UV radiation so it’s a high disatvantage to have it going up further north after the ice from the ice age starts melting. He evolved pale skin over time and became the modern Briton. The interesting thing is the blue eyes. Blue eyes have their origin in modern day Ukraine 6,000-10,000 years ago, does this imply that blue eyes are older or they spread out really fast in from east to western Europe?

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this is so cool. 

A lot of british people even today have northern african ancestry. there is no one in this world who has only 1 country in their dna. we're all mixed.

I know what you are talking about, but that has a European, more specifically Balkan, mutation, which means it’s Balkan in origin not North African. The spread of it actually correlates with the conquerings of Alexander the Great, they must have been the main carriers. The ones in Britain most likely arrived as soldiers of the Roman Empire from South Eastern Europe, not North Africa. That DNA can ultimately be traced in North Africa, true, just like all DNA can be traced back to Eastern Africa. But it has a distinctly European mutation. Those people who carry that DNA did not look darker skinned, at least nor more than the average Southern European.
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Okay....While people are arguing about skin, I'm interested in eye color. It only existed at most 10000 years ago. How did this happen in so short of a period? Instead of a population, perhaps it happened at an individual level. If they're only testing this on one skeleton then he might have been a product of two different races?

 

And 10000 years ago is far too late of a time for sapiens' migration to Britain. A better estimate would have been 30000 years ago - and I don't know what this article means by "modern" humans but sapiens at that time, biologically, were no different from the ones today. When people refer to modern humans they usually mean the ones that came after the neolithic revolution but cheddar man lived thousands of years before that had even reached Britain.

 

Additionally, when cheddar man's ancestors had arrived, there would have already been a sizable population of different tribes in Britain and, in 20000 years' time (some more milennia after that when you take migration patterns into account) they would have already developed lighter skin long before he even came into existence. The article makes it sound like Britain was only occupied 10000 years ago. Lol.

 

Yet again, people are extrapolating one isolated case to further whatever ideologically-fuelled agenda they may have.

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