Cheddar Man (Gromit)

I have just watched the childish Channel 4 compilation about the DNA-based reconstruction of a 10,000 year old skeleton found in Cheddar Gorge. From the outset, the voice-over was full of portent. We were in for some fundamental shocks, apparently.

Summary; Cheddar Man came from the Middle East, was related to several other skeletons found in Spain, Luxembourg and Hungary and had darker skin than we would have thought. Obviously, whilst traced to the Middle East, originally he will have come from Africa. And the 'relations' being across a wide range means we are more European than British.

Review; Yep, I think that we have believed a migration from the Middle East (probably from Northern India/Persia) for decades. So, not new, not a shock. And a darker skin than we currently have? Why is that a surprise? I'm guessing knowing origins, suggests it quite strongly and it is as irrelevant regarding him as anyone else today.

It seems that the scientists (or just the script writer?) would be shocked to see a dark-skinned person disembarking from an Air Nigeria flight from Lagos. Which accords with how poor they seemed as a crew, being unable to string proper sentences together. They may know their subject, but they obviously didn't pay much attention during their Eng Lang/Lit classes.

For me, hearing there were close DNA relationships with other people right across Europe was interesting because of the spread and why did they spread? But the programme could not get past the politics it wished to project; we are not 'British' (which is a cultural construct, not racial) but 'European' (but held back from pointing out how ridiculous this made Brexit).

Maybe, though, just maybe Cheddar Man didn't know he was 'European' either, but surely paid a fair rate of tax. Our shock at his skin colour would be because we are racist, yes?

And the added, unsupported fact that we all came out of Africa is now being questioned, but not by this programme. They completely ignored the discovery of an 'oldest ever' skeleton in Europe. Where Lucy was found is an ideal, undeveloped part of the world. The fact that the land of much of the rest of the world is unexamined doesn't mean we came form Africa.

Finding old remains there is interesting and the theory may be correct, but as ever, we don't know. Unless you are a cultural Marxist and are desperate, at every turn to state your distaste for Western civilisation.

I'm amazed that, as the programme assumed we couldn't but project modern views onto the past, they didn't also explain that there were no cars or aeroplanes when he was alive.

I particularly enjoyed the guy saying that people migrated to what is now Britain seeking 'living space' (lebensraum), which seemed odd as the entire population was around 12,000. Just seemed an strange thing to say, yet alone the words used!
Could have been an interesting programme, but Channel 4 did it, so it was politically oriented tosh.