Who Were the First Humans on British Shores? | The Story of 'Cheddar Man' 

Maybe the hole in his head signifies that he is actually Swiss, not Cheddar?! 🤔 Either way, this story sounds a bit cheesy to me! 🤷‍♀️

Oxford University scientists announced Friday 9 Mar 1997 that Adrian Targett, 42, a history teacher in the large Village (pop of 5500) of Cheddar in southwest England, shares a common ancestor with Cheddar Man. It is the longest human lineage ever traced, the team of scientists from the university's Institute of Molecular Medicine said.

I once read they did a DNA comparison on Cheddar Man with local people, and they found one gentleman who was a descendant of Cheddar Man. His wife remarked her husband was rather fond of rare meat.

My grandmother told me it doesn't matter what they tell you at school Chedder man was not made of cheese

"First humans on British shores" implies an island. Britain was still joined to mainland Europe when humans first came.

Poor explanation of whether he’s a direct ancestor. Yes, he is, if he left descendants, because he lived before the Identical Ancestors Point. He is a member of the WHG population, Western Hunter Gatherers. From Wikipedia “This population forms about 10%, on average , of the ancestry of Britons without a recent family history of immigration.” So yes, he (or his contemporaries who left descendants) make up 10% of the typical British ancestry, and a smaller proportion of the ancestry of everybody else.

The thing is homosapien is a wanderer. Always moving, some of us have made incredible efforts to travel others "settle down". Our monogamy makes moving a lot easier than for a polygamous communities who would have to have a planning committee meeting b4 they could do anything

Didn't Adrian Targett from Cheddar link his mitochondrial DNA back to Cheddar Man? I believe it happened back twenty-five years ago or so..

Strange calling the The Oldest Englishman. English or England did not exit ten thousand years ago. The oldest Britain would be a more accurate title for this.

They found his distance relative through a DNA through his mother side he was shocked and he said that it's a interesting thing to be apart of a family older than the current monarch. He had black hair and blue eyes.

Britain has always been a land where people come and go, except, Cheddar man's people, the Western-Hunter-Gatherers, went nowhere. Rather they were replaced by the farming population. This doesn't mean they all decided to just leave the land to the farmers, this meant they were taken over by the farmers. Interestingly, we see in Britain and Ireland that phenotypes associated with these Western hunter-gatherers remained amongst the ruling elite of the later farming societies. This is in contrast to the typical continental setting where we see the farmers actively waging war against the Western hunter-gatherer populations during the neolithic. Yet then again, the farmers that replaced Cheddar man's people, were then replaced, by force, by the Bell Beaker people as this video mentions, but the farmers did not leave peacefully. We see instead up to 90% of the farming society's people disappear, with an almost complete and significant population replacement, by a society that was notorious for it's warrior-graves. However, British people are essentially still Bell Beakers. In Ireland and Wales, most of their ancestors and paternal lineages are of indigenous beaker origin. In Scotland, most of their ancestry and paternal lineages are also of Beaker origin. In England, they have less native Beaker ancestry, but the ancestors of the English from the continent, e.g. the various Germanic tribes, were ultimately also of Beaker origin, however they were continental beaker people. 4,500 years of a relatively stable population of Beaker-descendent people. Beaker people themselves being descendants of both Western-Hunter-Gatherers and the farmers. It's not really comparable to modern migration.

Well done! But I do have a bone to pick: early remains are labeled "cannibals" when there is actually only evidence of de-fleshing of bones, not what was done with that flesh. Many people groups de-flesh bones in order to release the spirit.

We need more of this kind of program! One that doesn't assume we are as we have always been. We need new perspectives in Anthropology.

Why mention Ms Seacoal? She was a trader !

I was totally captivated by this show, I live very close to Cheddar gorges, and when it all closes at about 5.30pm, I have been in the Gorges for a late picnic with family and friends, and the mountain Goats that still climb wildly upwards on what look like a giant stairway, you cant help but feel you are trapped in time. In an age that could of been 10,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago, until a car or motorbike brings you back to today.

When you think of it, it makes total sense. I read ages ago that scientists found that the very first humans were black skinned and came from Africa ,around Botswana area so obviously they spread out and travelled around the world , . Wasn't the world all joined up anyway at first then parts of the lands moves away to form the world we know today? Fascinating stuff. Huge thanks for sharing . 👍❤️

Why not upload his DNA to GEDMatch? They have an Archaic Matches table there that you can match your DNA to known DNA samples up to 20,000+ years ago

My irish father has quite a bit of DNA from Cheddar nan. I have confirmed it through about 6 other DNA sites and they all come back to him. He also has DNA from that part of England and lots of DNA matches from the South West..

The people who reconstructed Cheddar Man said they had darkend his skin as an experiment. Its taken on a political thing. Cheddar Man probably looked like Tom Jones, Catherine Zeta Jones or Luke Evans. Within the zone of Britishness.

I have have only just found her, but I love this woman, she speaks with the confidence of knowledge gained. A word to the wise: ' It is only when you realize you know absolutely nothing, that you become open to learning something. ' Words from my father to me. He was a very successful research chemist, and a borderline genius who, in retirement, lectured internationally.

People have only left the islands of Great Britain and Ireland due to the advance of ice sheets - driven out by nature, not choice.

@20:19, "...people coming into the UK..." A common mistake among many people, calling ancient Briton the UK (United Kingdom), which only came into existence, somewhat recently, with the Act of Union in 1801 as a political entity.

Eh. Poorly written and presented. There are far more serious documentaries on the cheddar man that *don't* go off topic to "racism", modern immigration and/or "colonialism".

on the news today in Lancashire they discovered a cave with remains over 11000 years old

What age group is this chanel aimed at? 10-12 yr olds.

A very enjoyable watch, ably presented. A subject I'm always interested in. I feel I've learnt something.

Geneticist Susan Walsh at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, says "we simply don't know his skin colour". this video claims the NHM own Geneticist did the research, are they saying 'Susan Walsh' was not involved?

This non historian presenter of 'history' is apparently (and perhaps unwittingly) part of a wider 'multicultural' campaign which argues that early Britons were 'black' and that Celts, Saxons and Vikings were 'migrants', no different at all from the tens of thousands of young Middle Eastern men who are crossing the English Channel this year. The best part of this video is the brilliant scientific input from a highly intellectual Dr Selina Brace at the Natural History Museum. She could have presented the entire programme. However, the general presenter (herself of a recent migrant background) mused, no doubt correctly, that, over millennia and centuries, many populations change their ethnic content or are replaced completely by other peoples and belief systems. Therefore folks, I am now convinced that there is really no such thing as a native culture in the UK and even if there is, it has no particular value so let it be replaced. Preferably as soon as possible. Furthermore, do not worry if there is a collapse in Western liberal values in the UK due to mass migration from, for example the Islamic world, or if this leads to the kind of 'multicultural' paradise-on-earth that has torn places like Syria, Palestine, Kurdistan, Bosnia and Lebanon apart with tit for tat atrocities from different ethnic and religious groups. You see, migration and population changes and replacement are 'natural' and have been happening for millennia. So there is no need to worry about (actually very swift) mass migration into the UK and Europe. Clearly, ancient population changes too would have led to countless incidents of violence, rape, slavery, forced conversion, family breakup, abject misery, tribal conflict and many other kinds of trauma. It might actually be more useful if History Hit programmes are presented by qualified historians/archaeologists/DNA scientists (rather than generalised 'hobby' presenters) ie by specialist presenters who know their history, stick to it, and allow the channel's overwhelmingly well educated viewers to draw their own conclusions.

Vitamin D is correct, is one answer to why the pigmentation is different, and it became dominant in the European countries over thousands of years.

Really enjoyed this 🙌

Some pretty basic errors in this, for instance Doggerland didn't disappear 125.000!!!, years ago. It was in fact less than 10.000 years ago, how can such a basic error be made unless there is some propaganda element to this program.

For some reason, I feel like I was supposed to learn more than the story of cheddar man from this video. Was this about history or some kind of social message that I'm not understanding?

"... and of course his skin pigmentation would have been dark or dark-brown to black in colour" Can someone explain how he was blacker than some Africans when his ancestors have been from Europe for tens of thousands of years?

Interesting video i thought they did find a relative of Cheddar Man. Living in a Village not far from where Cheddar Man's remains were found? I am sure I recall seeing that on the news? I did enjoy this video as I was born in Cheltenham , England. Now I reside in Ontario , Canada. 💪🏻🙏🏻✨

What a fabulous voice this women has.

Party political broadcast on behalf of the African diaspora! Nevertheless, a good whistle-stop tour of a million years' of history. Enjoyed it. Personally I don't care where the UK population originates, I just don't want it growing too big. It's hard enough to accommodate, educate and medicate the 65 or so millions we've got now! And I'd prefer not to be obliged to turn a predominantly "green and pleasant land" into an endless concrete & asphalt jungle. If the trendy lefties have got answers to these issues I'd like to hear them.

She seems very nice and calm. Very relaxing voice and perfect for the topic in my opinion

"Cheddar Man" is the ancestor of Nigerian cheese that migrated to a northern area in Somerset.

Thank You Ms Wiwa for a fascinating Documentary about Ancient Britain. An enlightening perspective.

So interesting to think of all the different ways people have looked over the millennia!

Excellent and fascinating; thank you for putting in the time and expense to produce the awesome video.

I've found over the years, meeting British white folks that some are VERY white and pale, they sunburn really easily, etc, and others who have an almost olive skin and tan very easily and are pretty much unaffected by the sun. It's just interesting to me because I used to see it all the time and often wondered about it.

Love the show, love the podcasts, well done guys, keep it up!

One thing I love about these islands we call home is that despite what the Nick Griffin's of the world say, being British is defined by an attitude, an accent and most of all a particular sharpness of wit and sense of humour rather than skin colour etc. One of our greatest strengths has always been the knowledge that reason trumps emotion. I'm proud to live in a country that says, "As long as we can laugh together, we can live together."

what about that DNA test years ago in which they found he was related to a local history teacher? Mick Aston was involved...

I think it's worth keeping in mind that the Cheddar Man sample had been in storage for decades before the Natural History Museum commissioned the analysis. The study and genome were never published, and years later have still not been despite the Museum's half-hearted insistence that they were going to be. Considering samples for DNA analysis are supposed to be extracted during excavation, and not after decades sitting in the archives, alongside the fact that almost no information about any of this has been published or peer-reviewed, I would take all of this with a rather large pinch of salt. The findings are rather convenient in today's social climate, but the science is hardly watertight.

Fascinating. Thank you. Currently reading a brief history of sapiens

Really interesting. Thanks for posting.

The tectonic plates brought Scotland and England together, and once upon a time we were merged in with the main continent of Europe. How long has a kind of human being have to be in a land, before it is regarded as native. Anglo Saxon, Jutes and Danes and Normans for that matter have been in the UK for over a thousand years. How long were the Maoris in New Zealand there, or the Native American in the US? About a thousand years perhaps.

Not an "Englishman". A Briton.

"The Oldest Englishman who ever lived"? What utter nonsense.

A well presented documentary that raises more questions about our fascinating human journey. Will our wanderlust extend to the stars eventually as we continue to evolve? The histories tell us Picts lived in Britain, then Celts, Roman Peoples (from Spain across to Germany), and Scandinavian settlers who interbred with a mix of all the settlers in those fair isles. Britain, like Europe, has been a melting pot of migrants for thousands of years. Some people today like to discriminate on the basis of colour when their real fear is a difference of culture. Modern Britain is a product of farmers fighting back the forests that once provided a haven for the nomadic inhabitants and the WILD-life that preceeded them, bringing domestic animals to her shores.

An interesting subject and well presented , thank you !

I was interested till I was told that the symbol of the 'English Lion' was pilfered from Africa. Why do the people who write these things use language like that? I was hoping for scientific information but got this instead 🙄

Who would have thought that animals, humans included and plants thrive as the climate warms up. Astounding.

This was amazing. Thank you!

I love how the rendition of him has this little smirk and a twinkle in his eye

What a fascinating video wow how Interesting, I remember hearing about Cheddar Man, many years ago. But this video was put together and explained In the perfect way. I loved It

He wasn’t an Englishman. English is a 9th century identity. That is well after this man lived.

The only thing we know for sure is that Cheddar Gorge is really fuxxing cool

What a refreshing approach to explaining our history, real and relatable. A stark contrast to previous pompous pedagogory we are usually confronted with. Well done ladies we need more of this.

It is astounding to me, seeing his facial reconstruction, just how similar he looks to many old photographs taken of many Native Americans in the US..

A woman after my own heart. Who are the first and how? Thank you.

4:23 Yeah that's his left eye, unless you have flipped the video. I appreciate the lack of stock video, but the images could have followed the narrative a lot better. So many shots that were not of the thing being described.

23:31 I guess we can’t have a history lesson without a lesson in modern racial politics 🤦🏻‍♀️

You pretty well answered my question (thought). It would be interesting to put Cheddar Man's DNA into the genealogy DBs and see if there are any matches with anyone alive today.

There is a very nice theory of why we stopped and started to grow stuff like wheat. We learned how to make alcohol, and as you cannot carry your field with you we got happily stuck and we got more organized, all for the better.

Enjoyed that. Thank you.

Surely he should be called Cheddar George !

Africa was not the only place humans emerged from. Now we know of at least 3 more species that developed.

Clearly our greatest strength.

Great video! I appreciate the geological, climatic, and deep-time perspectives.

Many people on here denying that the History teacher is descended from “Cheddar Man” but the team who did the original excavation tested many people in the area and only found one, the history teacher who, amazingly, looks like the reconstruction.

It’s insane that the skeleton has survived so long. It’s hard to even find Anglo-Saxon bodies intact from 2000 years ago! ❤

Well presented and informative. Thank you!

Very interesting. Thank you

What did Nick Griffin say that was wrong? The indigenous Britons almost all identify as English, Scots, Welsh or Irish. And why is he being quoted in the first 5 minutes of a history vid on the first humans in Britain? And who on earth thinks "British history" then thinks of Mary Seacole over the likes of Henry VIII, Victoria, Drake, Raleigh, Churchill, Locke, Washington, Wellington, Newton, Alfred the Great, in fact FFS tens of thousands of others? I get the distinct feeling I am about to be subjected to a half hour of bollocks.

Our ancestors !!!! She is from Africa

The DNA of Adrian Targett, who was 42 years old when that discovery was made, was found to match that belonging to Cheddar Man

They want you to feel rootless. That's all this is about.

08:40 "Almost half a million years later ..." Imagine half a million years on from now, the year 502023. That would be something, wouldn't it?

There is a new element in our development that most find all too easy to ignore, and that is the sensible obligation to keep our individual carbon footprints low.

I love your show. First things first. England! My England, my Avalon. The very seed of Athienian Democracy. Your prodigal sons the USA, love and esteem you, your King, and the people. Thank you for being a dear friend and allie. Kevin from sunny Mexico.

I love these kinds of videos. Great video, great content, and it's so interesting to listen to people who are really passionate about their job and can at the same time explain things in a way others, non professionnals can understand. Thank you so much. Cheers from France.

don`t some of us have a tiny amount of Neandethal dna?

I can't wait to see the episode on gorgonzola man!

Excellent presentation, was hooked from the start

I've read that a man in the Cheddar area does show relation to Cheddar Man. Has this been debunked then?

What's going on here? In his book, "Saxons, Vikings, and Celts" (published as "Blood of the Isles" in the UK) Bryan Sykes describes taking the first DNA sample taken from one of Cheddar man's teeth. It was in fact the first successful sample taken from early human remains. How could the producers of this documentary not be aware of this?

Love this host/narrator(?) and the scientist! Great vid!

!!! EXCELLENT DOC., VERY COLORFUL ON LAB. PROCEDURES !!! 🙏🙏🙏

So massive fluctuations in the climate is normal for Britain ?

This turned into too much of a political statement/ opinion. I'm a paid subscriber to history hit and love the channel, but we don't need presenters to implant their own opinions into the documentaries. Comparing free movement of people 10,000 years ago to now and using that to suggest that anybody and everybody should be able to come and go to the UK freely is just absurd / baseless. Back then, they were not impacting a society of people by coming and going. The country wasn't full to the brim. Infrastructure was not overly stretched because there was not infrastructure, no buildings, no nothing. It was a wild country and early humans were just a part of that wilderness. Many reasons we do not allow for just anybody to come and stay here and why we vet people first - such as welfare system being stretched completely out of control, dilution of public assets, potential for increased crime, potential overpopulation for the land size etc etc.

Well made programme. Interesting that the natural history lady says "sapp iens" as I do and my family do and the presenter says "say piens". May be the former is English and the latter American. All my direct ancestors back to the 1700s are from UK/Ireland (which is a bit boring). The further back I go (in terms of UK written records) the small the area from which people come. My DNA on the maternal side tracked back 30,000 years leads us to the Caucasus mountains.

What an excellent and totally fascinating programme - and so well presented! I think everybody should learn about the dark brown-skinned native Britons, their olive-skinned conquerors who built Stonehenge, their white replacements who gave us the Bronze Age, their white Celtic successors whose languages live on in Cornwall, Wales and Scotland and so on and so forth. The history of these islands is one of many religions, skin colours, languages, cuisines, lifestyles, types of weather, types of dwelling, types of government, types of transport and so on. It is and always has been very richly varied. As Noo points out, the histories of Shakespeare, the Blitz, Henry VIII and his six wives and so on only give us part of the story (fascinating though they undoubtedly are) and we should be prepared to explore ever further with a mind open to new and surprising journeys of discovery.

Funny but Mary Secole is not one that springs to mind when I think of british history no matter how much the lefties want it to.

Politics

Well it was interesting nonetheless, but it would be nice if we know more about these people of pre-farming Europe

Oldest "Englishman" always makes me chuckle.

the we're unlikely to find anyone related to him, didn't age well did it. They found his distant descendant still living in the area, and still looking the spit of his ancestor. It's amazing how close they look.