Posted on 02/06/2018 11:31:05 PM PST by blam
The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton has revealed.
The fossil, known as Cheddar Man, was unearthed more than a century ago in Gough’s Cave in Somerset. Intense speculation has built up around Cheddar Man’s origins and appearance because he lived shortly after the first settlers crossed from continental Europe to Britain at the end of the last ice age. People of white British ancestry alive today are descendants of this population.
It was initially assumed that Cheddar Man had pale skin and fair hair, but his DNA paints a different picture, strongly suggesting he had blue eyes, a very dark brown to black complexion and dark curly hair.
The discovery shows that the genes for lighter skin became widespread in European populations far later than originally thought – and that skin colour was not always a proxy for geographic origin in the way it is often seen to be today.
Tom Booth, an archaeologist at the Natural History Museum who worked on the project, said: “It really shows up that these imaginary racial categories that we have are really very modern constructions, or very recent constructions, that really are not applicable to the past at all.”
Yoan Diekmann, a computational biologist at University College London and another member of the project’s team, agreed, saying the connection often drawn between Britishness and whiteness was “not an immutable truth. It has always changed and will change”.
The findings were revealed ahead of a Channel 4 documentary, which tracked the ancient DNA project at the Natural History Museum in London as well as creating a new forensic reconstruction of Cheddar Man’s head.
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(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Tom Jones is a little swarthy.
He’s zotted.
Well darn.
I was looking for a new Undead Thread pet.
Back to the blogpimps then, I guess?
They’re no fun though.
That dude was a nut.
Got himself on a crusade against me a while back.
Figured he was going to either make ms play nice or run me off.
Worked real good, too.
There's another dyke (Angela Merkel) that is eliminating the separation of Europe from North Africa.
I am mtDNA U5a2e, earliest maternal I know is from Slovakia.
Wait, he had a grudge against you?
So, pretty much he was going yo go out eventually?
Blue eyes came from the recessive Stilton gene.
“I’m with you. The coloring I see here is PC shaming.”
No this is wonderful!
I’m 1/4 English, so now I’m a Brother.
That means I can’t be racist.
WE WUZ KANGZ AN SHEEIT
Yep. My thoughts. When so many political and agenda driven lies permeate every institution, who knows what is the truth any more.
Hurry and apply for all that free stuff./s
It'll be interesting when the history of colonization is done with improved knowledge of DNA included in the discussion.
Pretty big assumption based on one skeleton. Perhaps this was a slave who came along with lighter skinned lighter eyed folks
It is not a lack of vitamin d that causes lighter skin. It is melanin. You can take all the d you want that won’t turn you dark......hence my use of sunscreen
My sister, by blood, has blue eyes, but I have green. Does that mean my sister’s ancestors come from the Black Sea but mine don’t?
Skin color is certainly NOT Race.
When I wuz a kid,
—
When I wuz a kid, race was defined by who could run or peddle the fastest ...
Reminds me of the Dr.Who episode where Aliens invaded earth by making everyone think they were always there and thus less likely to rebel against them (otherwise a crummy episode but an interesting premise)
ping
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