The prehistoric Briton was dark-skinned and had blue eyes

Scientists have determined that early inhabitants of the British Isles were dark-skinned and blue-eyed. They did this with the help of the latest techniques for DNA analysis of the remains of the so-called “lateral”. Cheddar man, the oldest known ancestor of the Britons.

Analysis of the remainsóIn one of the oldest Britishów has yielded surprising results. Cheddar man (Cheddar man) lived about 10,000 years ago during the Mesolithic period. His remains were found in 1903 in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. Cheddar man is the oldest complete human skeleton found in Britain.

Scientists at London’s Natural History Museum, where a reconstructed image of an ancient Briton was unveiled, extracted the DNA of the Cheddar man, but it was their colleagues at University College London who used the DNA to reconstruct his face. Their analysis provides valuable new information about the first humans, whoseóThe people who settled Britain after the last ice age.

Researchers have found that early Britons lacked variantóIn genetic appropriate to the pale skóry, whoóra has spread póź later throughout Europe. Cheddar man had a dark skóhand, blue eyes and black, curly hair. He was quite short, measuring only a little over 150 centimetersów. This combination of traits may seem rather surprising to us today, but it was common in Western Europe at the time.

– I have been studying the skeleton of the Cheddar man for about 40 years. To come face to face with his image and this striking combination of sk coloróry, eyes and curly hair – is something we would not have imagined just a few years ago, but this is what the scientific data indicates – said Professor Chris Stringer, who works at the Natural History Museum in London.

Fractures on the surface of the skull suggest that his death occurred rapidly. Móhead was killed or died as a result of an unfortunate accident. He made his living at the age of about 20. It is not known howób was found in the cave, but it is possible that he was placed there by his companions.

Dutch specialists in paleontological modeling – Alphonse and Adrie Kennis – have taken up the subject of. They combined information provided from DNA analysis, such as the shape of a skull or nose and the previously mentioned sk coloróry and eyes with physical measurements from the scanóin the skeleton of the. The result is a strikingly realistic reconstruction of the face of a prehistoric Briton.

The genome of the Cheddar man indicates that he was closely related to other Mesolithic individuals from Spain, Luxembourg and Hungary, whoórych DNA was analyzed by scientistsów.

The information shatters the previous and widely held view, whichóry presents Europeansów as tall, fair-skinnedórych brunetów. Bright skóra probably appeared in Britain and throughout Europe with the migration of people from the Middle East about six thousand years ago, któThey had fair complexions and dark eyes.

Current scientific research does not clearly indicate why bright skóra has dominated the European population. Perhaps a diet based on grain products poor in vitamin D is responsible, which forced the absorption of this essential nutrient from sunlight through the skóhand. This is just one theory, but it is the one that most scientists are leaning towardsów.