While the British Royal Family can trace its lineage back to King Ecgberht (770/775 – 839), a DNA test reveals a much more astonishing connection for a history teacher in Cheddar. He shares a direct maternal line with Cheddar Man, Britain’s oldest complete skeleton, making him the world’s most distant confirmed relative.
Ancestor and descendant: Reconstruction of Cheddar Man, the oldest known Briton, and history teacher Adrian Targett, whom he shares a direct lineage with. Photos: Werner Ustorf / Adrian Targett/Facebook
In the picturesque Somerset region of England lies Cheddar Gorge, a stunning limestone ravine that holds secrets from millennia past. It was here, in 1903, that a remarkable discovery was made during a drainage renovation in Gough’s Cave – the nearly complete skeleton of a man who lived around 10,000 years ago.
Dubbed Cheddar Man, the find quickly became known as the oldest complete skeleton of a modern human discovered in the British Isles. Analysis revealed that this Mesolithic hunter-gatherer died in his twenties, standing at about 5 feet 5 inches tall. His burial in the cave was typical for the era when England was still a forested land connected to Europe.
For decades, Cheddar Man was a subject of intense scientific interest. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that a truly astounding connection would be made – one that would bridge a gap of about 300 generations.
Cheddar Man, Britain’s oldest near-complete human skeleton. Photo: Geni
In 1996, Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford extracted mitochondrial DNA from one of Cheddar Man’s molars. This groundbreaking work was later featured in a regional television program in the UK called “Once Upon a Time in the West.” The program highlighted a remarkable connection between Cheddar Man and Adrian Targett, a history teacher from a local school.
Both Cheddar Man and Targett were found to belong to mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U5. This discovery indicates a direct maternal lineage connection between the two, spanning approximately 300 generations. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mother to child, so this shared haplogroup demonstrates that Targett is a direct descendant of Cheddar Man through an unbroken maternal line.
This extraordinary finding generated significant coverage in national and international media, which focused on the direct genetic link between the ancient skeleton and the local history teacher. However, it’s important to note that while this connection represents a continuous maternal lineage, it comprises only a small portion of Targett’s overall genetic makeup.
The connection between Cheddar Man and Adrian Targett remains intriguing, nevertheless. Targett was born and lives very close, about half a mile away, from Cheddar Man’s final resting place and still holds the record for “farthest traced descendant by DNA.” This suggests an incredible continuity of population in the area, with Targett’s maternal lineage persisting in the Cheddar Gorge region for around nine millennia.
What makes this connection even more fascinating is the apparent physical resemblance between Cheddar Man and Adrian Targett. When presented with a new reconstruction of Cheddar Man based on DNA analysis, Targett noticed striking similarities.
“There is definitely a resemblance when you look across photos of my cousins,” he told the Mail.
“I do feel a bit more multicultural now,” he laughed. “And I can definitely see that there is a family resemblance. That nose is similar to mine. And we have both got those blue eyes.”
One notable difference is Cheddar Man’s considerably darker skin, and indeed, a more detailed genetic analysis of his skeleton in 2018 challenged long-held assumptions about the appearance of early Britons. Using cutting-edge techniques, a team from London’s Natural History Museum extracted a full genome from bone powder created by drilling a 2mm hole in the skeleton’s skull.
The analysis suggested that Cheddar Man likely had dark to black skin, curly hair, and blue eyes – a combination that might seem unexpected to many today. This revelation sparked discussions about the complex history of human migration and the evolution of physical traits like skin color.
Dr. Tom Booth, a researcher associated with the museum, explained: “He is just one person, but also indicative of the population of Europe at the time. They had dark skin and most of them had pale colored eyes, either blue or green, and dark brown hair.”
Booth added, “Cheddar Man subverts people’s expectations of what kinds of genetic traits go together… It seems that pale eyes entered Europe long before pale skin or blond hair, which didn’t come along until after the arrival of farming.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDWVDu01P0Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Cheddar Man: DNA shows early Briton had dark skin – BBC News (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDWVDu01P0)
Indeed, the pale skin common in modern Europeans is now thought to have developed much later than previously believed, possibly in response to agricultural diets low in vitamin D. Instead of 40,000 years ago, as previously assumed, genes associated with lighter skin only began to spread about 8,500 years ago, according to population geneticists at Harvard University.
Interestingly, about 10% of the genetic ancestry of modern British people can be traced to the European population to which Cheddar Man belonged. However, it’s important to note that current thinking suggests the Mesolithic population Cheddar Man belonged to was mostly replaced by farmers who migrated into Britain later.
The story of Cheddar Man and Adrian Targett captures our imagination because it tangibly connects us to our distant past. As we consider Adrian Targett, teaching history to a new generation just a stone’s throw from where Cheddar Man was discovered, we’re reminded of the incredible journey of our species – happening even when the location itself doesn’t change. From ancient hunter-gatherers to modern educators, the human story is one of continuity and change, of shared heritage and diverse paths.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5