Ancient Briton "dark-skinned, blue-eyed"
A scientific discovery indicates that the ancestors of Britons who lived in the Middle Stone Age had skin ranging from "dark to black".
Using DNA analysis techniques, the researchers were able to draw a complete genetic map of this person.
The researchers drew an imaginary picture based on the analysis of the skull of the oldest skeleton found in Britain, which is known as the Cheddar Man and dates back to about 10,000 years ago in southwest England today.
The researchers from University College London who were involved in the study said that these findings indicate that the light skin tone that is now the stereotyped color of northern Europeans dates back much earlier than previously thought. The scientific team, which also included researchers from the Natural History Museum in London, described the skin color of (Cheddar Man) as ranging from "dark to black". The museum displays the skeleton in the (Human Evolution) hall.
"To go beyond what the bones tell us and get a scientifically based picture of what he really looked like is remarkable, and from the results it's quite a surprising achievement," said Chris Stringer, head of human origins research at the museum.
Unearthed in 1903 in a cave at Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, the skeleton is of a Mesolithic man who was a hunter-gatherer whose ancestors migrated to Europe at the end of the last ice age. Scientists say that it is now possible, after 300 generations, to link between about ten percent of the origins of the original Britons with the people (Cheddar Man).
As part of the project commissioned by Britain's Channel 4 television to prepare a documentary, experts from the Natural History Museum's ancient DNA laboratory drilled a tiny hole in the skull to extract genetic information. The DNA of the Cheddar Man was unusually well preserved, enabling scientists to sequence its genes for the first time and analyze them to determine aspects of its appearance.
Then Alphonse and Adrie Kennesh, two Dutch artists who are experts in making paleontological models, used a state-of-the-art scanner to create a 3D model of the head of the Cheddar Man. University College London and the Museum of Natural History said that the model presented the face (Cheddar Man) with unprecedented accuracy. The model represents the face of a dark-skinned man with prominent cheekbones, blue eyes, and coarse black hair. The model is scheduled to be shown in the Channel 4 documentary on February 18th.
Source: websites