A WHITER SHADE OF PALAEOLITHIC: "BLACK" CHEDDAR MAN EXPOSED AS FAKE SCIENCE

Cheddar Man: Putting the pale back in palaeolithic.

The purpose of the recent "Black" Cheddar Man story was all too evident. 

Telling us that the oldest known inhabitant of the British Isles was Black was an obvious way of promoting a multicultural society of open borders and cheap labour, a combination that clearly suited the interests of the capitalists and landlords. It also had some synergy with the recent engagement of Prince Harry to a "Black" divorced actress.

Another obvious point was that the story was tied to a Channel 4 TV documentary about Cheddar Man. The publicity that it generated was a great way of boosting ratings for a dull documentary that would have otherwise struggled to attract advertising revenue. 

These facts made the Alt-Right justly suspicious of the so-called "science" involved in the story. Although, even if Cheddar Man had been Black, it would have meant nothing, merely showing that modern Britons had evolved skin more adapted to their environment or come along at a later date and replaced more primitive early inhabitants like Cheddar Man -- probably violently.

Now it seems that our suspicions were justified with an increasing number of scientists casting doubt on the "Black" Cheddar Man narrative, as reported by the highly respected New Scientist magazine (paywall):

"A Briton who lived 10,000 years ago had dark brown skin and blue eyes. At least, that’s what dozens of news stories published this month – including our own – stated as fact. But one of the geneticists who performed the research says the conclusion is less certain, and according to others we are not even close to knowing the skin colour of any ancient human."

The problem with Cheddar Man is that the main researcher on the project, Susan Walsh at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis -- yes, I've never heard of it either --was using a highly speculative model that was attempting to "predict" someone’s eye, hair, and skin pigmentation solely from their DNA. 

This unproved new method suggested that Cheddar Man may have had "dark" skin, which Channel 4's PR then spun to the media as  " definitely black." 

There are additional problems with Walsh's model in this case, as it has only ever been partially demonstrated with fresh DNA.

"Walsh stresses that the study doesn’t conclusively demonstrate Cheddar Man had dark to black skin. We cannot place such confidence in the DNA analysis, she says. For one thing, Cheddar Man’s DNA has degraded over the last 10,000 years."

Brenna Henn at Stony Brook University, New York told the New Scientist that we are simply not ready to predict the skin colour of prehistoric people just from their genes because the genetics of skin pigmentation turn out to be more complex than thought.

"Known skin pigmentation genes, discovered primarily in East Asian and European populations, don’t explain the variation in skin pigmentation in African populations. The idea that there are really only about 15 genes underlying skin pigmentation isn’t correct."

It is clear from all this that the question of Cheddar Man's skin colour remains a mystery. But even if he were Black, what then? Only Liberals think race is only about skin colour. The Alt-Right know it is about so much more.

Also, it might worth paying attention to a major new study by a team of archaeologists led by Harvard University and London's Natural History Museum, which says that modern-day Britons are barely related to the ingenious Neolithic farmers like Cheddar Man. 

Instead they are related to the 'Beaker people' who travelled from modern-day Holland and all but wiped out the existing Stone Age inhabitants of Britain around 4,500 years ago. As reported by the Daily Mail:

"Many experts believed it was just Beaker pottery-making and culture which was exported to Britain between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago - not the people themselves.

But the new evidence comes from DNA analysis of 400 prehistoric skeletons, some from after Stonehenge and others born before it was created.

The genes of these ancient people provide enough clues to determine that Beakers travelled here from Holland and took over in a few centuries.

They replaced 90 per cent of the Neolithic farmers who built the [Stonehenge] monument and had lived here for 1,500 years.

The creators of Stonehenge appeared Mediterranean, with olive-hued skin, dark hair and eyes."

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