AHomo sapienskeleton who lived around 10,000 years ago and is one of the oldest modern humans in Britain.
Known today as Cheddar Man, the ancient gentleman has recently made the news again.
Scientists utilizing modern DNA techniques believe the Mesolithic human had lightblue eyes and a dark complexion.
The skeleton quickly became known as the oldest modern human discovered in the British Isles.
A Mesolithic hunter-gatherer who died in his twenties, the ancient man stood only about 5 foot 5 inches.
Cave burials were typical at the time, when England was still a forested land connected to Europe.
Strangely, Cheddar Man was found buried alone.
In 2018, Londons Natural History Museum extracted DNA from Cheddar Man’s inner ear bone.
Previous efforts to do so depicted him as light skinned.
Like other Mesolithic humans in Europe at the time, Cheddar Man likely had a dark skin tone.
Cheddar Man was an early human pioneer of the settlement of the land that became Britain.
Despite the over 10,000 years which have passed since his death, descendants still populate the island.
This population was largely replaced by a latter wave of migrant farmers.
However, DNA testing in1997 revealedthat matrilineal relations of the ancient human still lived in the region.
Adrian Targett, a high school teacher, was a DNA match.
