Cheddar Man - our oldest complete skeleton
Cheddar Man was the name given to the oldest human skeleton to be found in Britain. His remains were found in Gough's Cave, Somerset, in 1903, and it is believed that he died a violent death (possibly related to cannibalism) around 7150BC. The skeleton is on display in the Natural History Museum in London, with a replica in "Cheddar Man and the Cannibals" musuem in Cheddar.
In 1996, DNA was extracted from the molar of the skeleton, and analysed. It proved that Cheddar Man belonged to a mitochondrial haplogroup common in Britain, Ireland and the Basque Country, which lies in southern France and northern Spain.
What makes this story all the more interesting is the fact that there are today living descendants of Cheddar Man in the area near where he was found. To be able to trace your direct ancestry back to the oldest human skeleton in Britain must be quite special! It became accepted that, thanks to Cheddar Man, modern British people were not descended from Middle Eastern farmers, but from ancient European hunter-gatherer tribes.
However, there is another twist in the tale of Cheddar Man. There is the creeping and ever-increasing tale put about that the British Isles have always had a black African community(!) and that, in fact, modern Britons largely have black ancestry. This is done largely to make white people feel inferior in their own lands, and to make them think that our history and culture is all down to the input of black Africans.
What is even sadder is that people believe this ridiculous myth.
So how long will it be before someone decides to say that Cheddar Man was not Basque or British, but, in fact, he was Bantu or Zulu or something like that? You may be laughing, but you probably won't be laughing for long.
