But it is plain that -- despite the darker skin, due to life long, nearly full-time outdoor / sun exposure (and a generally sunnier climate then, in what ultimately became foggy Britain). . . the two actually do look. . . related. And that's because DNA analysis confirms. . . they are. By mitochondrial DNA, they share a maternal line. Here's the story:
. . .Adrian Targett visited the home of a close relative yesterday. He had to put on Wellington boots because the floor is muddy. The relative was not in. Hardly surprising: he died 9,000 years ago.
But there is no doubt: Mr Targett, a 42-year-old history teacher in Cheddar, Somerset, has been shown by DNA tests to be a direct descendant, by his mother's line, of "Cheddar Man", the oldest complete skeleton ever found in Britain, and now also the world's most distant confirmed relative.
Even the Royal Family can only trace its heritage back to King Ecgbert, who ruled from 829 AD to 830 AD. By contrast, Cheddar Man, a hunter-gatherer who pre-dated the arrival of farming, lived in 7150 BC. . . .
Cheddar Man was discovered in 1903, 20 metres inside Gough's cave, which is the largest of 100 caverns in Cheddar Gorge -- Britain's prime site for Palaeolithic human remains. He had been buried alone in a chamber near the mouth of a deep cave, about 1,000 years before hunter-gathering began to give way to farming. . . .
The oldest previously recorded relative was the great- great-great-great grandfather of Confucius who lived in the eighth century BC. Two of Confucius's 85th lineal male descendants today live in Taiwan. . . .
Yep -- mind. . . blown! As I often say, these days. . . what an extraordinary time to be. . . alive. Grinning, ear to ear.
नमस्ते
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