All language subtitles for Secrets of the Lost Series 3 Part 3 Skeleton of Cannibal Cave 1080p

Narrator: How far back can you
trace your genetic heritage?

Few of us can go back more
than two or three generations.

But one man could expose
more about humankind

than ever before.

His story may have ended
10,000 years ago

before Britain became an island,

but his remains are unearthing
amazing new discoveries.

Certainly, I think people
are in for a bit of a shock.

Narrator: In one of the most ambitious
ancient human DNA projects ever,

a team of scientists
will come face to face

with Britain’s oldest
complete skeleton...

We're not just conjuring
this up out of nowhere.

We really do have
scientific data.

Narrator: ...Analyze
his unique genetic makeup...

Be nice to find
where his closest relatives are.

Narrator: ...And reveal
some undeniable truths

about the man's past and how
his genetics live on today.

1, 2, 3.1, 2, 3.

London's natural history museum
contains exhibits

from a vast range of specimens.

Home to life and earth science,

the museum is comprised
of a staggering 80 million items

within five major collections...

Botany, entomology, mineralogy,
paleontology, and zoology.

But this specimen is among
the most precious.

It's the oldest complete
skeleton of a human body

ever found in Britain.

Today, he's more commonly known
as cheddar man.

It's very unusual
to find any material, really,

from this time period,

so to find a complete skeleton
like cheddar man

is actually quite amazing.

Narrator: Cheddar man's remains
were unearthed over 115 years ago

in Gough's cave, located
in cheddar gorge, somerset.

At the time, nothing like
it had ever been found

in Britain before,

and it caused a media sensation.

I had no idea how old it was.

There were discussions of
how primitive it might be...

That it might be some
very primitive human.

But of course,
it was a modern human,

and we now know that
it's about 10,000 years old.

Narrator: The story of
cheddar man can be traced

back to the end
of the last ice age.

Like the rest of the world,

Europe was warming,
and ice caps were melting,

raising sea levels.

About 8,000 years ago,

the last land connection
between Britain and Europe,

called Doggerland,
was inundated.

Britain became an island,
and a few thousand people

who were roaming its forests
for food were isolated.

Cheddar man's tribe
was among them.

These hunter-gatherers
became the founders of Britain.

Cheddar man was a member of a
population of nomadic hunters.

His tribe thrived during
the middle stone age,

also known
as the Mesolithic age,

and eventually they settled near
the spectacular cheddar gorge.

At three miles long
and nearly 395 feet deep,

it would have been
just as dramatic a feature

on the landscape as it is today.

So we think cheddar gorge would
have been a good place

for humans to live at that time
because first of all,

there were good water supplies
there.

Those water supplies
also would have attracted game

to to drink
from those water supplies.

You would have a slightly
more sheltered environment.

So this would have been a good
place to explore a variety of resources.

Narrator: In 1993, workmen
digging a drainage trench

at the bottom of the gorge
in Gough's cave

unearthed the skeletal
remains of cheddar man.

Fossil experts dated his bones
to nearly 10,000 years ago,

and although paleontologists
have yet to determine

the cause of death,

some have speculated
that cheddar man was brought to

and later buried in the cave
by members of his tribe.

We don't actually know
if the cheddar people

were living in those caves.

I mean, obviously his body
is in there,

but we don't have
evidence of occupation.

People have speculated

that people were putting
their dead into these caves.

So they became sort of
sacred tombs, if you like,

where the ancestors were.

And it's possible
that cheddar man

was put into Gough's cave
in that way.

His skeletal remains indicate

that he was small in stature...

Around five feet,
five inches tall,

and weighed approximately
140 pounds.

Paleontologists determined
that he was in his early 20s

when he died.

He also had very healthy teeth,

which suggests
he had a good diet.

Yet for such
an important specimen,

we knew surprisingly little
about cheddar man.

That is, until now.

Currently, a cutting-edge
scientific project is underway

at the natural history museum
in London.

A team of scientists
is performing

the first comprehensive
DNA analysis of cheddar man,

using a scientific method
called genetic sequencing.

The technology
for doing DNA sequencing

has changed absolutely massively
in the last 10 years.

Until about the beginning
of 2007, 2008,

we were using a technology
that been around

for maybe 20 years or so,
and that was very good,

it was very efficient,
and we knew we were doing.

But the amount of DNA sequence
we could generate was very low.

Now I can do the work in one day

that would have taken
maybe two or three years,

to have generated.

Narrator: No prehistoric Briton
of cheddar man's age

has ever had
their genome analyzed.

Through this analysis,
the team hopes to determine

the blueprint
for this human being.

Barnes: I think that's
what's fantastic here,

is that chance to build up
a complete picture

about one famous individual,

one famous person
who died 10,000 years ago.

Narrator: First, the team needs
to examine the skeleton

to determine how
to extract his DNA.

Dr. Brace: When you first come,
looking at a skeleton

and trying to work out

where you might want
to drill into that skeleton

to get some bone powder
for DNA analysis,

you're looking at the best type
of bone that you can get.

Typically, our favorite
bone of choice, as it were,

is the petrous bone.

It's a bit
of the inner-ear bone...

Extends into the skull,
inside the skull.

If I'm gonna drill through it,

I'd want to go up in there.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I think, actually...

I think that looks like
it's gonna be accessible.

Narrator: But extracting data from
ancient DNA can be painstaking work.

The reason that we sample
from that one piece of bone

is that the amount of human DNA

compared to the amount
of bacterial DNA that we find

is much better for that bone
than it is

for all the other bones
in the body.

And it's a rather specialized
operation.

Dr. Brace: What we have
to remember is that,

as soon as any organism dies,
the DNA begins to break down

and becomes more
and more fragmented.

And it becomes increasingly
harder and harder for us

to get that DNA

and to pull it out
and to make sense of that DNA.

Narrator: DNA can survive
in bones and teeth

for extraordinary
lengths of time,

given the right
environmental conditions.

Luckily, cheddar man's DNA was
well preserved in Gough's cave.

The consistently cool conditions
in the cave

and layers of natural
mineral deposits

make it an ideal environment.

I'd be really happy to try that.

If everyone's happy,
then I would be.

Okay.

To extract the DNA,

Dr. Brace brings the sample
to the museum's DNA lab,

where more than 350 scientists
will analyze the specimen

using specialized
testing equipment.

One of the major problems
with working with ancient DNA

is that of contamination
from modern DNA.

We have to be completely
covered from head to toe.

We wear special suits
'cause we are, in fact,

like a walking bit
of contaminant,

a walking bit of modern DNA.

Narrator: For over 100 years,

scientists have only been able
to theorize

about what cheddar man looked
like and where he came from.

So the stakes couldn't
be higher for the team.

It's something that
no one's done before.

It's just gonna be
really exciting.

I have to admit, it's also
a little bit terrifying...

The idea of putting a drill
into such an iconic skeleton.

Narrator: But if successful, the
results could provide

conclusive, groundbreaking
scientific data

about the ancestry
of the British people.

This is probably the one shot
that we have of recovering DNA

from this specimen.

The pressure's on.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: For over a century,
the story of cheddar man

has been a topic
of constant mystery.

Based on expert
research analysis,

scientists have posed theories
about what he looked like,

where he came from,

and what he can tell us
about our earliest ancestors.

One idea was that cheddar man
belonged to the last tribe

of hunter-gatherers,

before humans developed
farming and metalworking.

But they were both creative
and inventive.

They made sharp blades
called microliths from flint,

creating tools
and knives for cutting.

They carved harpoons from
antlers for spear fishing.

And they were among
the first humans

to create a vital new weapon,

the bow and arrow.

Mesolithic expert
Dr. Rick Shulting

has studied
cheddar man's remains

and their ancestral connection
to modern humans extensively.

Dr. Shulting: So they would have
been hunting things like red deer,

aurochs, which are a very large
form of wild cattle,

wild boar,

and collecting hazelnuts,
berries

that would be
available seasonally.

They probably had quite
well-defined territories

that they moved around
seasonally.

They would have known their
landscape very, very intimately

in terms of what was available
at certain times of year.

Narrator: And they had another
hunting asset at their disposal, too...

Dogs.

The dog had been domesticated

for some thousands of years
already.

Once you have those,
you have the possibility

of driving game.

And quite often we know from,
again, ethnographic accounts

that men, women, and children

would participate
in game drives.

And we're on the doorstep
of cheddar gorge,

which can funnel animals
into a narrow place,

which is a classic landscape
that you would use

this style of hunting with.

Narrator: For decades, Britons
have debated where they came from

and what defines the nature
of their genetic heritage,

according to historians,

cheddar man's tribe was one
of the first groups of people

to move back into Britain
at the end of the last ice age.

But the genetic makeup

and resulting appearance
of the population

has varied considerably
over time.

So what did cheddar man
actually look like?

Through cutting-edge
DNA analysis, Dr. Selina Brace

and her team at London's natural
history museum hope to find out.

But first, they need to collect
a viable DNA sample.

Dr. Brace: We want to make
a very, very small hole,

about 2 millimeters in diameter,
so, like, a tiny hole,

so that out from that hole,

we'll pull this very white
bone powder that we would hope

would be the preserved bone
of cheddar man himself.

And then from that, we will
be able to pull out the DNA.

We really don't know
before we start

what the quality of the DNA
is gonna be like...

So how much human DNA we're
going to get from cheddar man.

It could be that
there is basically

absolutely no human DNA
left in this specimen at all.

Narrator: Fortunately,
the team was able to extract

enough genetic information
from the preserved bone...

Data that is vital for the team
who will be creating

a facial reconstruction
of cheddar man's skull.

And the inside of the skull
is showing up very nicely.

A little bit more
inside these eye orbits.

Using a 3-d scanner,

scientists from the university
college London

create a 3-d image of the skull.

And we're... just to get
the bottom of the jaw.

Once the image is complete,
using a 3-d printer,

scientists turn the image
into a physical representation.

In 13 hours, this print model
will provide the foundation

for the reconstruction.

It has a rather robust cranium.

Big, so this is clearly...
Looks like a big male,

but you see,
his face is fairly small.

Narrator: Working from their
studio in the Netherlands,

model makers Adrie
and Alfons Kennis

are among the world's
leading paleoartists.

Narrator: The Kennis brothers
aren't the first paleoartists

to attempt a facial
reconstruction of cheddar man.

But this will be the first model
guided by DNA evidence.

Step one of the reconstruction
is based on skull structure.

31.31 is in the middle.
The middle.

In the middle, yeah.
In the middle.

Using the printed skull,

they'll produce a fully
fleshed-out head and face.

You want to have flesh
measurements on the skull,

so you have a table of flesh
measurements.

On the table, you find the more
or less exact measurements

for the tissue thickness
on this point or this point

or this point and this point.

Narrator: But before
the brothers can start adding

specific physical traits
to the model,

they need hard data.

Alfons: In the past,
there's a lot of research done

on skin thicknesses
of all races.

And you can then figure out

how thick is the skin here
from a guy

who is the same age
as, more or less cheddar man,

so around 20 years old.

You will drill a hole.

You stick a stick in this hole
in this place,

and then you cut it off
at the right size.

And then we fill up with Clay.

That's the forensic way
of reconstructing a face.

Narrator: As the Kennis brothers
wait for this crucial information,

others working on the project

are hopeful
that cheddar man's genetics

will hold the answers
to their own pressing questions,

some of which
have evaded researchers

since this ancient man's remains

were discovered
in Gough's cave in 1903.

Stringer: I think the idea of
cannibalism for many people is shocking.

But of course,
once you see evidence,

it's very difficult
to argue with that.

♪♪

Narrator: Everything
scientists hope to discover

about cheddar man,
from his appearance

to his genetic legacy,

could be revealed
by DNA analysis,

but only if
Dr. Selina brace's efforts

to retrieve DNA were successful.

When you get
the sequencing data back,

that's when you can be
starting to think,

"wow, what can we tell
about this individual?"

Narrator: For centuries,
scientists have studied

cheddar man's skeletal remains,

which were discovered
in Gough's cave...

Only able to pose theories
about his ancestors.

It wasn't until 1992,
during another excavation,

that scientists made another
remarkable discovery...

Bones of earlier, temporary
visitors to Britain.

They occupied the cave

nearly 5,000 years
before cheddar man lived.

These mysterious visitors
came during an ice age thaw,

but were driven out
when temperatures dropped again.

Their bones are also
being analyzed

to see if there's a connection
between them and cheddar man.

Were they his ancestors?

Was the cave even
a kind of ancestral tomb?

From the bones they left behind,
scientists have discovered

people were using sophisticated
butchering techniques

to strip flesh from bones.

So if these bones belong
to his ancestors,

is it possible
that cheddar man's people

also engaged
in the ultimate taboo...

Cannibalism?

You don't want
to give in and say,

"yes, they were cannibalized,"
but the evidence is so clear.

Narrator: Dr. Silvia Bello has
spent the last 10 years

studying the cannibal bones
discovered in Gough's cave.

This is one of the tooth marks,
a score that we can see here,

and here, there are two
very fine cut marks.

So this is on the femur,
and there are the chewing marks,

the cut marks, and a percussion
Mark all in the same area.

Stringer: I think, you know,
the idea of cannibalism

for many people is shocking.

You know, I had that view
to, that, you know,

we should look for alternative
explanations

for the modification
of the cheddar bones.

But, of course,
once you see evidence

of actual human chewing marks
on the bones,

it's very difficult
to argue with that.

We think we can identify
five individuals.

There's a young child,
maybe three years old.

We've got two adolescents...

Teenagers,
based on the jaws and teeth...

And then we have... An adult.

Have they all been
treated this way?

Yes, all been treated,
all the modified

with this constant filleting
and detachment of the muscle.

We've got finger bones
and toe bones.

Yes, these were modified in a...

Well, they just crushed the end.

And it's probably crushed
between the teeth.

In the mouth?

And sucked the grease.

So because of that,
it's possible

that they were
boiling these bones,

so to make it softer,
to extract.

And otherwise, there's no
evidence of cooking, though?

There's no trace of
a direct fire

or contact of fire
with the bones.

They don't seem
to have been cooked,

at least that way.

They were all butchered. Yeah.

Narrator: With this evidence,
Dr. Bello believes

that this cannibalistic behavior

might not have been driven
by hunger.

Rather, it was performed
for ritualistic purposes.

These are, as you can see,
very, very fragmentary.

But the skulls
are almost complete.

One in particular...
And this is a reconstruction...

It was almost complete.

Again, a huge amount
of cut marks and breakage

and the breakage on the face,

which resulted
in this, possibly.

Yes, yes. Detachment.

And then all a series
of modification all around.

Yes, so whereas they were

obviously getting the flesh
off these

and eat... you know, purpose...

For the food, really,
for the purpose of eating,

in this case, they're cleaning
this skull very carefully.

They're taking the scalp off.
Yes.

And why wouldn't that be just,

say, to get the brain out
to eat it?

If the purpose is just
to extract the brain,

they would probably smash it
from the top

or in a much easier way.

But here, there seems
to be some care

and all around to obtain
the result...

This final cup.

So a skull cup.

And that's why
they are not so broken.

These intentionally crafted
relics suggest

that the cannibalism
may be part of a death ritual.

Was this part of a tribute
to the dead...

That within your own group,
when one of your relatives dies,

you eat parts of them
in order to take on

maybe their courage
and knowledge.

In other words, it's a sort of
respect for the dead.

Narrator: Using DNA analysis,
scientists hope to prove

if these cannibals are indeed
cheddar man's ancestors.

Back in Holland,
the basic anatomical work

on the cheddar man
facial reconstruction

is almost complete.

Before they can move forward,
Adrie and Alfons Kennis

will need to know
cheddar man's genetic results

to determine his coloring.

We really don't have
a great idea

about what Mesolithic people
would have looked like.

We assume that they're probably
quite similar to people

that you see around today.

Narrator: There are many factors
involved in skin color,

and the research
is still in progress.

Currently, experts believe that
modern humans appeared in Africa

around 200,000 years ago

and were all dark skinned.

Around 60,000 years ago,
some of those humans left

to populate
the rest of the world.

Those who went to Europe
developed lighter skin over time

in order to absorb more sunlight
and produce more vitamin d.

Most scientists assume that
Europeans had already developed

paler skin many thousands
of years before cheddar man.

Stringer: Without DNA evidence,
it's all guesswork.

When we think about
all the appearances

cheddar man may have been...
Often depicted as light skinned,

light hair color, light eyes,
but in fact,

cheddar man could have been
quite different to that.

He might have been
quite dark skinned, dark haired.

Narrator: The genetic material
taken from cheddar man

could yield groundbreaking
information on his appearance,

but researchers also hope
it will provide context

on his place in history.

Three hundred generations
after he died,

what is cheddar man's
genetic legacy today?

I'd love to know where
his closest relatives are.

Are they somewhere else
in Britain,

or are they across
the ancient land bridge

that existed
in continental Europe?

One of the really
important questions

is to examine his genome

and see to what extent
we can claim

that there is continuity...

A settlement in Britain
from cheddar man

all the way through
to the present day.

We might see that there is a
reasonable degree of continuity

of ancestry going all the way
back to cheddar man.

So we might find

that cheddar man
is actually very similar

to many people
that live in Britain today.

Narrator: Today,
thanks to modern technology,

DNA can be tested from both
living and deceased individuals.

So is it possible

that there are people
still living in cheddar

that could be linked
to cheddar man?

Genealogist Brad argent
is in cheddar to find out more.

My name is Brad. Yes.

And you are?

Heather. Heather.

Do you have much of a connection
with the village?

My ancestors I can trace back
as far as 1650.

Many of my ancestors
were carpenters.

My husband's traced our family
to 1600.

It does suggest that
our family's been in this area

for quite some time.

After collecting DNA samples
from multiple cheddar residents,

a lab will process the data

and compare it
to cheddar man's DNA

to determine whether or not
there could be a link.

What the team needs now

is cheddar man's DNA
to compare it to.

After weeks of waiting,

cheddar man's DNA results
are finally in.

The data is good,
the quality is good...

A lot more than we thought,
so that's brilliant news.

So I'm just getting it
prepared here,

ready to send off to UCL
for some further analysis.

Narrator: A team at UCL,
university college London,

will now turn Dr. Brace's data

into real conclusions
about cheddar man.

And the nation's oldest man
has some surprises in store.

♪♪

Narrator: The university college
London team

has received
the DNA sequence data,

and they're about to solve
one of the greatest mysteries

surrounding the
10,000-year-old bones.

What did cheddar man look like?

What color or pigment
were his hair, eyes, and skin?

Thomas: Skin pigmentation, the
same as eye and hair pigmentation

and the shape of hair
and so on...

These are things that are
determined by a number of genes,

not just one gene.

And we know
a lot of those genes.

We don't know all of them,
but we know a lot of the genes

that influence skin
pigmentation.

And so we can we can look
at those, and we can ask,

"right, does he have the
variants that is associated

with lighter
or darker pigmentation?"

And by putting those together,

using algorithms
that have been developed,

for example, in forensics,
we can get an idea

of the levels of pigmentation in
the eyes, the skin, and so on.

Narrator: First... eye color.

Research on modern DNA
tells the team

where the eye-color genes,
or markers, are.

By comparing those
to cheddar man's DNA,

they get their answer.

Cheddar man had blue eyes.

Normally, we think of light
blue eyes as being part

of a kind of overall package,

with light skin and blond hair
that you see in general,

and it's kind of a marker
of European ancestry...

And northern European ancestry.

Narrator: Next... hair color.

Cheddar man had dark hair.

Finally... skin color.

This is the most
genetically complex trait.

And the results
defy expectations.

Dr. Diekmann:
I looked at two markers

that are associated
with hypopigmentation,

so with light skin...
Were both absent.

We do not find neither of them.

So that suggests the absence
of a light-skin phenotype.

Okay.

Most likely
a dark-skinned phenotype.

Dark skin, especially with blue
eyes, is surprising.

Dr. Diekmann: I'm trying to
increase the power

of this prediction to get more
of these informative markers

by using a surrogate,

by using another individual
for which we have more data,

which is no different
to cheddar man's,

and that is what allows me
to derive a stronger prediction

and really establish cheddar man
having most likely dark skin.

Narrator: While Yoan continues
the analysis,

the team sends the news
to the Kennis brothers,

who have already started

creating cheddar man's
skin pigment.

Ohh, okay.

Okay, yeah, the red blush has
come through very nice.

Narrator: Driven by science,

the Kennis brothers take
their lead from human anatomy.

Skin pigment comes
from tissue layers,

which the Kennises replicate
inside a mold

with paint and silicone.

It's not too dark,
not too light.

We need more orange.

Purple.

Yeah, purple.

But this has to be like this.

While the Kennises wait
for more detail on skin color,

Ian and Selina
are starting to answer

one of their other
biggest questions.

Here is... this is the most
recent PCA that we've had.

Narrator: Since Britain
was newly inhabited

when cheddar man arrived,

where did his ancestors
come from?

When we add in
our cheddar man data,

it's falling right here,
right at the bottom

of the other Mesolithic
individuals.

The data they're looking at
plots other European populations

who lived around the same time
as cheddar man.

By comparing his DNA to theirs,

the team can calculate who
he's closest to genetically.

And these are the ones
that cheddar man...

So the other ones
that it's really close to...

Cheddar man's very close to
is la Braña from Spain.

This one here.

It's the Loschbour,
which is Luxembourg.

And then this Hungarian
individual, as well.

So cheddar man
is genetically close

to several other
Mesolithic Europeans

whose DNA has already
been analyzed.

The surprise is just
how closely related they are.

The team has concluded
they were all part

of the western
hunter-gatherers group.

We're not seeing large
differentiation

between the population
to which he belonged

and the populations in,
for example, Spain or Germany.

I think it would be fair to say

that he's more a European
than he is a Brit.

Narrator: Cheddar man would have
been closely related

to his contemporaries throughout
Europe, not just in Britain.

But what about his ancestry?

The team thinks
they have an answer

to the longstanding question

of cheddar man's
mysterious origins

and how, if at all,

the notorious Gough's cave
cannibals were involved.

♪♪

Narrator:
After decades of speculation,

the London natural
history museum team

has finally discovered
the genetic heritage

of their 10,000-year-old
skeleton.

Cheddar man's ancestors
came from the middle east.

They move across
from the near east,

mix with standing
Mesolithic populations

that are moving north
into Europe,

and then end up in Britain,
in southern Britain.

Yeah, 'cause no one's shown that

from Britain before, have they?

We've got samples
from Europe, but...

So this actually shows that
they actually would have come

all the way across
into the U.K., as well.

Yeah. That's really cool.

Scientists have suspected
these middle eastern origins

for a while.

But no one has ever proved it
in an ancient Britain until now.

It seems that cheddar man's
ancestors moved from Africa

into the middle east.

Later, some headed west
into Europe,

and when the ice melted,
some migrated to Britain.

The team now knows how and when

his ancestors first came
to Britain.

But other big questions
still remain.

Chief among them...
What did he look like?

Team archeologist Dr. Tom booth
has used his own DNA sequence

to come up with part
of the answer.

So I was just looking
at my own personal DNA results

'cause I was checking out
that marker,

that was a market
for curly hair.

Yes.

And I looked at the same marker
in my genome,

and it turns out that we've both
got the same marker.

That's great, yeah.

It's pretty incredible,
isn't it?

So, yeah, my hair is gonna
be the model

for cheddar man,
I think, from now on.

But Yoan has news, too.

He's received a full
skin pigment analysis

from a specialist in the u.S.

So it turns out that cheddar man
was probably darker

than we initially expected
in terms of skin pigmentation.

And so, yeah,
we have a little chart.

The scale that they produce
is basically probabilities

for five different categories.

And what we see is that

it's pretty far
down the spectrum.

And yeah, it certainly is darker
than we inferred before.

This dark-to-black result
is both extraordinary

and unexpected.

If a person with that color skin

was kind of wandering
around town now,

you know, we would
call him black, I suppose.

That's incredible.
That's brilliant.

And a lot darker, you expect,
for Europe, as well.

Absolutely. Yeah.

These results are the final
vital piece of the puzzle

for the Kennis brothers'
cheddar man model.

It's a bit too black here,
I think,

it's too black
and too much red in it.

If the whole face is like this,
it will be nice... very nice.

Alfons: I know. I know.
I know. I know.

What the team has discovered
strongly suggests

that paler skin
in Britain and Europe

is a far more recent phenomenon
than anyone thought.

It really shows up that these
imaginary racial categories

that we have are really
very modern constructions.

It may be that we have to
rethink some of our notions

of what it is to be British,

what we expect a Briton
to look like at this time.

Narrator: Two weeks later,
the natural history museum team

is about to witness
the unveiling

of cheddar man's
reconstructed head.

Stringer: After all these years
of knowing cheddar man,

which is more than 40 years,
in my case,

it will be great to see this
bringing together

of artistry and anatomy and DNA.

It's something that we've now
seen all the way through

from taking the bone sample
to getting the genome,

extracting information,
and really unusually for us,

actually getting a physical
thing,

a physical object
we can look at.

I'm genuinely kind of excited

to get the science
and the physical appearance

and to have the two together...
Yeah, I'm really excited.

It's gonna be great.

Narrator:
After years of hard work,

the time has finally come.

1, 2, 3.1, 2, 3.

♪♪

Narrator: The team at the London
natural history museum

has been working for years

to understand the details
of cheddar man's lineage.

And all of their hard work
has finally yielded answers.

The first revelation...
The cannibals have Gough's cave

were genetically unrelated
to their specimen.

Cheddar man shares
no direct ancestry

with the earlier cannibals.

However, he was genetically
similar to another group,

the western-hunter
gatherer population.

The team searched for that DNA
in modern residents,

and they found it
in almost all of them.

So 300 generations later,

cheddar man's genetic legacy
lives on.

If we ask the question,

"to what extent
do we have ancestry

from the population
to which he belonged?"

Then the answer we do have
a very good idea about,

and it's a good proportion.

You know, it's something like
10 percent of our ancestry

comes from that that population.

We label those as western
European hunter-gatherers.

Narrator:
DNA science has unlocked

the 10,000 year old secrets of
cheddar man's genetic identity.

And it's finally time
to reveal his face.

Nice that you all come here
to reveal the cheddar man.

I want to remind you
it's your data we work on,

so part of it is your work.

But here, we will reveal it
for you guys.

1, 2, 3.1, 2, 3.

Oh, wow. Hey!

Brilliant.

Will you show it already?

[ Laughter ]

Here he is.

Quite a delicate jaw and face
and teeth,

and that comes through,
and it's a face

that's really quite distinctive.

Barnes: I think it looks great.

The combination of the face
shape and the skin color

and the eye color... it all just
kind of works together

it's a very broad, big skull.

Dr. Brace: Really, really cool to
have done the genetics for someone

or to have looked at their DNA
so closely

as we have done with this

and then to actually see
that made into flesh is...

Yeah, it's amazing.

I guess it's the only time
this will ever happen.

I think the Kennises
have done a fantastic job.

The light is now picking up
his blue eyes.

They're really showing now.

He has the biggest eyes
I ever made.

That combination of, you know,
quite dark skin and blue eyes

is something that
we don't imagine is typical.

But that was the real appearance
of these people...

Something
that's quite rare today.

And we're not just conjuring
this up out of nowhere.

We really do have
scientific data.

I mean, this is as close as
we're gonna get to know

what cheddar man
really did look like.

He's alive. He's a person now.
He's not just bones.

Narrator: It's been a long
and extraordinary road...

Four months of work
for the artists...

Two years for the scientists...

Ten millennia for cheddar man.

He marks the beginning
of a nation's story

and has left a genetic Mark
on his region,

still present today.

This is the great thing
about working in this field,

the historical perspective
that you get just tells you

that things change,
things are in flux,

and what may seem
as cemented truth

that people that feel British
should have white skin,

through time is not at all
something

that is an unmutable truth.

It has always changed,
and it will change.

♪♪