Cheddar Man

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The skull of Cheddar Man . Illustration from the first description (1914)
Preserved skeleton of the Cheddar Man

The Cheddar Man is the roughly 9,000-year-old, largely preserved skeleton of a man , which was discovered in Gough's Cave in Somerset ( England ) in 1903 and scientifically described for the first time in 1904. In 1934 more bones were discovered, the reconstruction of the skeleton lasted until 1937. The place of storage is the Natural History Museum in London .

The skeleton became a symbol for the beginning of the uninterrupted settlement of the island of Great Britain by anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) after the end of the last glacial period . In fact, the island's settlement dates back much further, as u. a. Several human skullcaps discovered in the same cave show that are around 14,700 years old ( Cal BP ) and were ritually worked on after the death of the people.

The "Cheddar Man" died at the age of approximately 23 years. His time of death was determined by means of radiocarbon dating to before 9080 ± 150 years before present dated.

In February 2018, a DNA analysis from preserved bone material from the find became known, according to which the man was very likely to have dark brown skin, blue eyes and dark, curly hair and was lactose intolerant . As early as 1997, the British human geneticist Bryan Sykes had reported that he had extracted mitochondrial DNA from a tooth and demonstrated that the man belonged to haplogroup U 5a. However, this analysis was only presented in one non-peer-reviewed publication and is considered controversial, as the DNA sample may have been contaminated by modern DNA.

literature

  • Charles Gabriel Seligman and Frederick Gymer Parsons : The Cheddar Man: A Skeleton of Late Palaeolithic Date. In: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Volume 44, 1914, pp. 241-263, doi: 10.2307 / 2843352
  • Edgar Kingsley Tratman: Problems of "The Cheddar Man", Gough's Cave, Somerset. In: Proceedings of the Bristol Spelaeological Society. Volume 14, No. 1, 1975, pp. 7-23, full text (PDF)

See also

Web links

Commons : Cheddar Man  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry Nathaniel Davies: The Discovery of Human Remains under the Stalagmite-Floor of Gough's Cavern, Cheddar. In: Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. Volume 60, 1904, pp. 335-348, doi: 10.1144 / GSL.JGS.1904.060.01-04.27
  2. ↑ Chris Stringer : The hominid remains from Gough's Cave. In: Proceedings of the Bristol Spelaeological Society. Volume 17, No. 2, 1985, pp. 145–152, full text (PDF)
  3. ↑ Silvia M. Bello, Simon A. Parfitt and Chris Stringer: Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups. In: PLoS ONE . Volume 6, No. 2, 2011, e17026, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0017026
    Cheddar cave dwellers ate their dead and turned their skulls into cups. On: theguardian.com of February 16, 2011
  4. ^ Briton Is Kin of Stone Age 'Cheddar Man'. In: Los Angeles Times , March 9, 1997.
  5. ^ John Campbell, David Elkington, Peter Fowler, and Leslie Grinsel: The Mendip Hills in Prehistoric and Roman Times. Bristol Archaeological Research Group, Special Publication, No. 1, 1970
  6. ↑ Cheddar Man: DNA shows early Briton had dark skin. On: bbc.com of February 7, 2018
    Blue eyes, dark skin: This is what people looked like 10,000 years ago. On: nzz.ch from February 7, 2018
  7. ↑ Selina Brace et al .: Population Replacement in Early Neolithic Britain. In: bioRxiv. Online publication from February 18, 2018, doi: 10.1101 / 267443
  8. ^ Media madness. Explanation on the Molecular and Cultural Evolution Lab website , University College London , accessed February 8, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Cheddar Man
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hominin fossil
DATE OF BIRTH around 7150 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 7150 BC Chr.
Place of death near Somerset , UK