Early Briton ancestor 'had dark skin and blue eyes'

People with an interest in ancient history and archaeology will have known of this for a long time. Now that the Natural History Museum (NHM) has reconstructed a model of 'Cheddar Man', so-called as the remains were found in Cheddar Gorge, West England, near Bristol, at Gough's Cave.

The NHM has a fascinating section in the Red Zone dedicated to Human Evolution and includes life-size models of various branches of the Homo- species, such as Neanderthalsis, so-named after the region it was discovered in.

Thanks to lurid headlines about the individual's skin and eye colour, it has attracted a lot of media interest.

This is good in terms of educating the masses, but not exactly news, surely?

Quote:

First modern Britons had 'dark to black' skin, Cheddar Man DNA analysis reveals The genome of Cheddar Man, who lived 10,000 years ago, suggests that he had blue eyes, dark skin and dark curly hair. The fossil, known as Cheddar Man, was unearthed more than a century ago in Gough’s Cave in Somerset. Intense speculation has built up around Cheddar Man’s origins and appearance because he lived shortly after the first settlers crossed from continental Europe to Britain at the end of the last ice age. People of white British ancestry alive today are descendants of this population.

Apparently, many people are very upset about this and have taken to social media to express scepticism.

Discuss.

Thread moved from Social Issues & Current Events.

Posted By:zooterkin

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