We now have a good idea what the earliest known modern British man looked like: he was around five foot five, with dark skin, striking blue eyes and curly black hair.
The face of Cheddar Man, who lived in Britain over 9,000 years ago, was recreated thanks to DNA analysis of his skeleton, originally dug up in 1903 in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset.
Written language wasn't around in Britain 9,000 years ago, so much of what we know about our earliest ancestors comes from educated guesses based on the remains preserved from this area.
But we do know enough to get a pretty good idea of what Cheddar Man's typical nine to five could have looked like...
MADE IN CHEDDAR From eating the neighbours to worshipping animal spirits and carving art in caves… a day in the life of Cheddar Man
He starts his day feasting on Stone Age muesli, makes a new coat out of deer and has a crafternoon in his cave - we imagine a day in the life of Britain's earliest ancestor
By George Harrison
7th February 2018
The Sun
WE now have a good idea what the earliest known modern British man looked like: he was around five foot five, with dark skin, striking blue eyes and curly black hair.
The face of Cheddar Man, who lived in Britain over 9,000 years ago, was recreated thanks to DNA analysis of his skeleton, originally dug up in 1903 in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset.
Cheddar Man has now been recreated using advanced DNA tech - and this is what he supposedly looked like
Cheddar Man, the earliest known Briton, lived around 300 generations ago - in time for the end of the Stone Age but still thousands of years before farming took off.
This means that Ched, who was in his 20s when he died, would have lived as part of a primitive hunter-gatherer society where life revolved around chasing your next meal - which may have even been his friends if food supplies were scarce.
Written language wasn't around in Britain 9,000 years ago, so much of what we know about our earliest ancestors comes from educated guesses based on the remains preserved from this area.
But we do know enough to get a pretty good idea of what Cheddar Man's typical nine to five could have looked like...
Cheddar Man's remains were found over 100 years ago in Cheddar Gorge, hence the name
Cheddar Gorge, Somerset
Breakfast: Stone Age muesli
Ched wakes up on the hard floor of his cave with serious hunger pangs.
As a hunter gatherer, there would have been no food security, so his diet would have depended partly on the seasons and partly on his luck while he was out hunting.
He was found with an excellent set of teeth on him, although we doubt he'd have had any way to brush them before heading off to get some breakfast.
Early Brits are believed to have had a diet heavy in foraged fruits and nuts - a sort of Stone Age muesli - so Ched could have tucked into whatever fibre-rich foods he found lying around to start his day.
We've imagined what a day in Cheddar Man's life could have looked like - from foraging for breakfast to relaxing in the afternoon
Eat the neighbours
People living 9,000 years ago were thought to have practised cannibalism when food was scarce.
If Ched still had the rumbles after his brekkie, he could have ambled into the cave next door to eat the neighbours.
DNA analysis shows he was not related to any of the humans whose bones were found in the same caves as him, so it's possible that the remains were those of people he had eaten.
However, it's just as likely that poor Ched could have been the one who was cannibalised.
Early humans like Cheddar Man were believed to be cannibals, so he could have eaten fellow people if he was really hungry
Crafternoon
Nomadic tribes like Cheddar Man's would have roamed the countryside, stopping for shelter whenever they found a decent cave to rest in.
Archaeologists have found crude carvings - mostly of animals - on the walls of many caves which are believed to date back to around Ched's era.
A few thousand years later, tribes became less nomadic and started building shelters where they set up camp, rather than hiding out in draughty caves.
But this was after Cheddar Man's time, so after a stressful day of hunting and gathering, he may have unwound by scratching one of these drawings into a cave wall.
Stone-age tribespeople were also believed to be religious, with the animals they drew possibly representing spirits or gods, so this could have served as a form of prayer for early man.
As an afternoon activity, Cheddar Man may have got stuck into some cave art by scratching an animal into his wall
Dinner: Deer steak
Cheddar Man's people had developed effective weapons to use when hunting the local animal population, mainly deer, boar and wild cattle.
They hunted with barbed spears - made with flint points on a wooden shaft - as well as rudimentary bows and arrows, crafted using basic woodworking tools.
The wild deer roaming Britain's countryside would have made for tricky targets, but would provide plenty of meat once they'd been carved up.
And as an added bonus, Ched would have skinned the deer and turned him into a furry robe to wear.
Britain's earliest ancestor lived in a time of huge leaps in hunting technology: around 10,000 years ago, barbs were added to spears to make it harder for prey to escape and, in the centuries following Cheddar Man's death, dogs were first domesticated to help on hunts.
Cheddar Man's people were keen fishermen, and hunted using spears and harpoons
Fish supper
As well as hunting land animals, Cheddar Man's people also caught plenty of fish.
They fished in Britain's streams and lakes using harpoons - meaning you needed razor-sharp reflexes to skewer your dinner.
Ched might have finished off his day by heading out to the marshy countryside to go spear fishing, before trudging back to the cave to sleep so he can do it all over again tomorrow.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5521682/cheddar-man-life/
The face of Cheddar Man, who lived in Britain over 9,000 years ago, was recreated thanks to DNA analysis of his skeleton, originally dug up in 1903 in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset.
Written language wasn't around in Britain 9,000 years ago, so much of what we know about our earliest ancestors comes from educated guesses based on the remains preserved from this area.
But we do know enough to get a pretty good idea of what Cheddar Man's typical nine to five could have looked like...
MADE IN CHEDDAR From eating the neighbours to worshipping animal spirits and carving art in caves… a day in the life of Cheddar Man
He starts his day feasting on Stone Age muesli, makes a new coat out of deer and has a crafternoon in his cave - we imagine a day in the life of Britain's earliest ancestor
By George Harrison
7th February 2018
The Sun
WE now have a good idea what the earliest known modern British man looked like: he was around five foot five, with dark skin, striking blue eyes and curly black hair.
The face of Cheddar Man, who lived in Britain over 9,000 years ago, was recreated thanks to DNA analysis of his skeleton, originally dug up in 1903 in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset.
Cheddar Man has now been recreated using advanced DNA tech - and this is what he supposedly looked like
Cheddar Man, the earliest known Briton, lived around 300 generations ago - in time for the end of the Stone Age but still thousands of years before farming took off.
This means that Ched, who was in his 20s when he died, would have lived as part of a primitive hunter-gatherer society where life revolved around chasing your next meal - which may have even been his friends if food supplies were scarce.
Written language wasn't around in Britain 9,000 years ago, so much of what we know about our earliest ancestors comes from educated guesses based on the remains preserved from this area.
But we do know enough to get a pretty good idea of what Cheddar Man's typical nine to five could have looked like...
Cheddar Man's remains were found over 100 years ago in Cheddar Gorge, hence the name
Cheddar Gorge, Somerset
Breakfast: Stone Age muesli
Ched wakes up on the hard floor of his cave with serious hunger pangs.
As a hunter gatherer, there would have been no food security, so his diet would have depended partly on the seasons and partly on his luck while he was out hunting.
He was found with an excellent set of teeth on him, although we doubt he'd have had any way to brush them before heading off to get some breakfast.
Early Brits are believed to have had a diet heavy in foraged fruits and nuts - a sort of Stone Age muesli - so Ched could have tucked into whatever fibre-rich foods he found lying around to start his day.
We've imagined what a day in Cheddar Man's life could have looked like - from foraging for breakfast to relaxing in the afternoon
Eat the neighbours
People living 9,000 years ago were thought to have practised cannibalism when food was scarce.
If Ched still had the rumbles after his brekkie, he could have ambled into the cave next door to eat the neighbours.
DNA analysis shows he was not related to any of the humans whose bones were found in the same caves as him, so it's possible that the remains were those of people he had eaten.
However, it's just as likely that poor Ched could have been the one who was cannibalised.
Early humans like Cheddar Man were believed to be cannibals, so he could have eaten fellow people if he was really hungry
Crafternoon
Nomadic tribes like Cheddar Man's would have roamed the countryside, stopping for shelter whenever they found a decent cave to rest in.
Archaeologists have found crude carvings - mostly of animals - on the walls of many caves which are believed to date back to around Ched's era.
A few thousand years later, tribes became less nomadic and started building shelters where they set up camp, rather than hiding out in draughty caves.
But this was after Cheddar Man's time, so after a stressful day of hunting and gathering, he may have unwound by scratching one of these drawings into a cave wall.
Stone-age tribespeople were also believed to be religious, with the animals they drew possibly representing spirits or gods, so this could have served as a form of prayer for early man.
As an afternoon activity, Cheddar Man may have got stuck into some cave art by scratching an animal into his wall
Dinner: Deer steak
Cheddar Man's people had developed effective weapons to use when hunting the local animal population, mainly deer, boar and wild cattle.
They hunted with barbed spears - made with flint points on a wooden shaft - as well as rudimentary bows and arrows, crafted using basic woodworking tools.
The wild deer roaming Britain's countryside would have made for tricky targets, but would provide plenty of meat once they'd been carved up.
And as an added bonus, Ched would have skinned the deer and turned him into a furry robe to wear.
Britain's earliest ancestor lived in a time of huge leaps in hunting technology: around 10,000 years ago, barbs were added to spears to make it harder for prey to escape and, in the centuries following Cheddar Man's death, dogs were first domesticated to help on hunts.
Cheddar Man's people were keen fishermen, and hunted using spears and harpoons
Fish supper
As well as hunting land animals, Cheddar Man's people also caught plenty of fish.
They fished in Britain's streams and lakes using harpoons - meaning you needed razor-sharp reflexes to skewer your dinner.
Ched might have finished off his day by heading out to the marshy countryside to go spear fishing, before trudging back to the cave to sleep so he can do it all over again tomorrow.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5521682/cheddar-man-life/
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