Find the Oldest Human DNA in the UK to Reveal Origins of Early Britons

The DNA sequence was compared to DNA previously analyzed from North Africa and West Eurasia. This revealed their histories. The Gough’s Cave ancestors arrived from northwestern Europe approximately 16,000 years ago. Kendrick’s Cave’s ancestors arrived from the west around 14,000 years ago.

The researchers not only sequenced the DNA of two individuals

but also performed chemical analyses on other bones and teeth at the locations. Kendrick’s Cave residents likely ate freshwater and marine foods, while Gough’s Cave residents ate terrestrial mammals such as aurochs and reddeer.

Gough’s Cave is also the place where Cheddar Man’s remains were discovered. Cheddar Man, a lactose-intolerant individual who died in his 20s around 10,000 years ago, was discovered in 1903.

“We knew from previous work, including the study on Cheddar Man that western hunter-gatherers existed in Britain around 10,500 years before the present, but we didn’t know when and if this was the first population to arrive in Britain,” said Selina Brace (study co-author), a paleobiologist at Britain’s Natural History Museum in the same.

Different cultural practices were also observed in the different groups living in the caves. Decorated animal bones–and no bones with signs of consumption–indicated that the cave in Wales was used primarily for burial, rather than occupation. Gough’s Cave also has cups made from chewed bones and skulls that indicate that the cave’s inhabitants were ritualistic cannibals.

Although there is still much to be uncovered about the time when people arrived in Britain, and the interactions between ancient populations, the new research reveals two important clues.