As DNA study reveals the face of Cheddar Man..

WAKING UP

“CHEDDAR Man would probably have risen with the sun,” says Prof Barham. “Although his body was found in a cave, that was more likely a burial site. We believe his community lived outside, in family groups of 30 to 50, in shelters made of wood and animal skin.”

And while it might have been 10,000 years ago, one part of Cheddar Man’s home decor would have been remarkably familiar – the sheepskin rugs and throws that are still in some shops now.

“They would have used leaves and grasses to make places to sleep but they would have also used animal skins to make heavy blankets.”

BREAKFAST

It seems breakfast was not too dissimilar to what we eat now, with him perhaps scoffing homemade muesli.

“They foraged for fruit and nuts. And when I have worked on Mesolithic sites before, one of the features we have found is charred hazelnuts.”

It seems we can take a leaf out of Cheddar Man’s book when it comes to diet. While he died in his 20s, he was healthy and had good nutrition.

“He has a knock on his head, so it is possible that contributed to his early death,” says Prof Barham. “Otherwise, he was healthy and had a good diet. Before people farmed and before modern medicine, life CULTURE Tools and trinkets expectancy was much shorter. But if they lived past childhood they had a good chance of getting to an old man... of 40.”

GETTING DRESSED

Even 10,000 years ago, fashion was important. “They would use stones to cut holes in animal skins and use sinews to pull them together.

“Jewellery has also been found. They had amber and shale bracelets,” says Prof Barham, right.

FEEDING THE DOG

“They would probably have had dogs. There is a site in Yorkshire where they have found evidence of dogs. They would have dogs as pets and they would be useful for hunting and guarding their camps.”

OFF TO WORK

Cheddar Man was a huntergatherer. The landscape would still have been bleak after the Ice Age but forests would be starting to grow, where they could forage fruit, berries and nuts.

There would have been deer and large wild cattle, and they would also have freshwater fish.

“They would each specialise in hunting, trapping, fishing or their knowledge of plants. Whoever is going out with one task brings it back to the group, so it makes it effective. Children would watch in the camp and learn quickly what they needed to do in their adult lives and how they would survive.”

Cheddar Man and his pals would have used hunting tools such as flint spears on wooden shafts.

DINNER TIME

He had a more civilised diet than those who lived in the area before him, some of whom were cannibals. Bones found in the same cave but from 5,000 years earlier showed the poor souls had suffered butchery or chewing damage, and it was thought their tribe ate human flesh as part of a ritual. Fortunately, Cheddar Man preferred to dine on deer steak, fish, and veg cooked on a camp fire. “They may have also snacked like we snack today, while out in the field,” says Prof Barham. “But the fire would be the one place they would all come back to and congregate at night.”

SOCIAL LIFE

Cheddar Man had friends further afield and he and his family would have visited other camps.

“They would have had networks of friends across the landscape and would visit them to talk about who was doing what, where the animals might be, where there might be ripe fruits.

“So they had social networks of sorts, not like ours, but they didn’t live isolated lives.

FOCUS Fires were social spaces

“We tend to think of them being primitive, grubbing a living in the forest. Yet it was important to have a wider network of friends.”

BEDTIME

After an early wake-up call from the sun and a long day out hunting, he would probably have headed to bed early, particularly during the winter months.

But there was very little privacy, even after dark. “It was a very intimate way of life, everyone would be able to hear and see everything they did.”