From our community:
A team at the Natural History Museum in London has made a new reconstruction of the face of a mesolithic man informed by complex DNA analyses. These show that 10,000 years ago, Western Europeans were black. In the case of this skeleton found in a cave in Cheddar Gorge in SW England, he had blue eyes and black hair. He was unable to digest milk in adult life, so no tea and scones with the vicar!
Previous reconstructions of Cheddar Man, which were not based on DNA data, depicted him with a lighter skin tone. Yet research by evolution and DNA specialists at the Natural History Museum and University College London suggests the pigmentation associated with northern European ancestry is a more recent development.
The research and remodelling process was documented for Channel 4 programme The First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000 Year Old Man.
Professor Ian Barnes, research leader at the Natural History Museum, said at a screening of the documentary: “For me, it’s not just the skin colour that’s interesting, it’s that combination of features that make him look not like anyone that you’d see today.
“Not just dark skin and blue eyes, because you can get that combination, but also the face shape. So all of this combines together and make him just not the same as people you see around today.”
The team has found people living in the Cheddar area who share the same mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) with “Cheddar Man.” In the ensuing 300 generations, his descendants’ skin has become “white.” The introduction of agriculture would have added the ability to digest milk in adulthood. BBC News interviewed one of those sharing mDNA who also has blue eyes. He saw family features in the reconstruction.