DNA extracted from the 10,000-year-old skeleton known as Cheddar Man indicates that early Britons typically had blue or green eyes, with dark curly hair and dark skin pigmentation more usually associated with sub-Saharan Africa.
Experts from University College London (UCL) and the Natural History Museum built a portrait of life in Mesolithic Britain, around 300 generations ago, using DNA from Britain’s oldest complete skeleton, which was discovered in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, in 1903.
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