Talk:Cheddar Man/Archive 1

According to the article by the Natural History Museum, Cheddar Man shares only 10% DNA with modern Britons. This should be added.

I quote: "Modern-day British people share approximately 10% of their genetic ancestry with the European population to which Cheddar Man belonged, but they aren't direct descendants. Current thinking is that the Mesolithic population that Cheddar Man belonged to was mostly replaced by the farmers that migrated into Britain later." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.89.94.135 (talk) 13:32, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

Sykes made some rather silly headlines with his suggestion that the local population was the direct descendant of Cheddar Man. Quite possibly, as Cheddar Man died fairly young, he had no direct descendants at all. The NHM article appears to have been written by a "digital data manager" (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kerrylotzof) rather than an actual scientist, but it makes that point clearly enough. Nevertheless, the genes of the first European population, of which Cheddar Man was a part, are still with us and form about 10% of our genetic make-up. The rest is, as we now say in the article, from later immigrants. I hope this helps. Richard Keatinge (talk) 10:07, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

Actually, they are direct descendants, as the average is 10%, but it is more for groups like the Irish, especially from western Ireland, southwestern English, Welsh and Highland Scots, for example, where pre-Celtic ancestry and physical types (swarthier complexion) are more frequent. Indigenous British and Irish have part of their ancestry to the Mesolithic aboriginals. The rest is mostly of Yamna/Indo-European stock, specifically Celtic or Anglo-Saxon, with some also from Neolithic farmers, as per the massive study by Haak at al, 2015.^[1] 2607:FEA8:1C5F:ECA3:14C0:C1FE:7247:5A2F (talk) 22:03, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

Also, this bust of Cheddar Man is at odds with every other Mesolithic European specimen which show that they had light or olive skin, such as the unveiling of the bust of this Mesolithic Greek girl from a few weeks ago:

He has dark olive skin, but not black, and these artists seem to intentionally have gone against the data of every other Mesolithic specimen, and about the specific markers they are referring to, which produce dark olive skin, not black. His bright blue eyes, wavy hair and facial and skull features are clearly Caucasoid, and actually still seen in some Europeans today with high WHG ancestry like Basques, Irish or Sami. 2607:FEA8:1C5F:ECA3:14C0:C1FE:7247:5A2F (talk) 23:28, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

Well, to correct one misunderstanding: The museum says "10% of their genetic ancestry", which is different from "10% DNA" - indeed, both Cheddar Man and we share 50% of DNA with a banana. About the rest: I'm a bit concerned about using a paper that does not even make a claim about Cheddar Man. It seems to be a case of WP:SYNTH. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 23:48, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

I noticed that Sarah Bollard the name of one of the students of Adrian Targett had been added to this article. I have removed it as I do not think it this is significant enough to add into an encyclopaedia, but if anyone knows why this should be included could you explain here?— Rod ^talk 11:14, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

It's pretty definite that he was both of those, and the category Black British seems indisputable. Admittedly he's not a part of the modern population, and doesn't share culture with any modern inhabitant of the British Isles, so another subcategory might be appropriate, aboriginal black British for example. But the fact of (near) blackness and indisputable Britishness make it bizarre to exclude him. Richard Keatinge (talk) 11:50, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

• @Richard Keatinge: Whether Cheddar Man's skin was dark or not is disputed, with a number of scientists saying that it isn't possible to deduce the skin color from the DNA-sample they have, so we shouldn't put too much focus on the alleged dark complexion. And the article should definitely not say that he was black, since not even the scientists who claim they can tell what his skin color was claim that he was black, as can be seen from the "official reconstruction" they presented, which shows a man with brown skin, dark brown wavy hair and clear blue eyes. - Tom | Thomas.W ^talk 13:31, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
  • "Black British" is one of those self-designation labels and is for those of " Black origins or heritage". In any case, it would be anachronistic to use such a term, "black" is relatively modern way of labelling people and shouldn't be used for prehistoric populations. Doug Weller talk 14:02, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
    • Which is why I reverted the repeated addition of Category:Black British people to the article... - Tom | Thomas.W ^talk 14:11, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

OK, and thanks both of you for engaging. From https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/02/18/267443.full.pdf, which looks scientifically pretty robust and refers for the relevant science to https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-017-1808-5, "Cheddar Man is predicted to have had dark or dark to black skin, blue/green eyes and dark brown possibly black hair". With high probability, he was black-skinned or close to it, and blue-eyed or close to it. And he died, and presumably lived, in the area now called Britain. It would also be odd if he didn't have "black origins and heritage", in fact it's hard to imagine what other origins he could possibly have had. His parents would presumably have resembled him in these respects. Now, I don't think we have added him to the category "Blue-eyed British people", but I can't see any earthly reason why we shouldn't. Or why he shouldn't if he was alive today, tick the census box that says "Colour of eyes: blue". These things are a straightforward description of phenotypic fact (or best guesswork, as in this case). They are not limited by time, by culture, or by a family history of relatively-recent migration from Africa. (Or are they? Are we using a definition of "blue" that has nothing, literally and absolutely nothing, to do with colour? In which case I can only go away and weep at the graveside of the English language.)

Yes, I know that the census hasn't, yet, asked about eye colour. It doesn't carry the same social significance in modern Britain as skin colour does. And I know that identification as "black" or "white" in modern Britain is for those of mixed genetic heritage and intermediate skin shade often a matter of cultural self-identification. I take no issue with that. Cheddar Man is unlikely to have faced any cultural issues of that sort. But the same arguments apply to the colour of eyes as to colour of skin. Cheddar Man was black-skinned by modern definition, he was found in and was presumably from the area now known as Britain, and while he may very well need a new subcategory, it seems as plain as the nose on my face that he was black, British, and black British. Richard Keatinge (talk) 15:34, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

British? How do you know he wasn't an immigrant? That's a serious question. And Britain wasn't an island at that time, he was found with fossils of animals native to mainland Europe who probably moved back and forth seasonally. He was Western European and a hunter-gatherer, but how do we know what else? And although he certainly would have had an African heritage, that might have gone back many generations. He would also have had Neanderthal heritage and they were never in Africa, or to be more precise, Africans don't have Neanderthal heritage. Doug Weller talk 16:26, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks again, also for the reminder not to take this point too seriously. No, I don't know that he wasn't an immigrant, his ancestors within a millennium or so certainly would have been. Nor do I know if he limited his diet to certified 100% British food (insert sidesplitting joke about migratory Cheddar cheese here). But he's taken the trouble to die in the Cheddar Gorge, not that anyone called it that at the time, he didn't live in a hypermobile modern society, and for practical purposes he can be regarded as native. Though not, as you say, to the British Isles, which at that time consisted of Ireland and various minor islands, the modern island of Great Britain being part of the continent of Europe, not that the toponyms "Britain" or "Ireland" were in use then either. But I digress. With high probability, he was native to the area that now forms the largest British isle.

The interesting point about his obvious blackness is precisely that it forces us to consider the definition of the term. No human has a skin colour of "pure black", absorbing all incident visible light. Nor "pure white" either. Therefore, "black" or "white" skin colour is to an extent socially constructed - but, I'd like to suggest, it has a strong basis in observable phenotype. We cannot apply to him any suppositions about recent African ancestry or culture, but it's a fair bet that if he were to dress up in modern clothes and wander down any British street, he'd be identified by passersby as black. After a chat about his origins, I suggest that most of those passersby, plus any census officials, would still label him as black, British, and black British. Though, parenthetically, without any recent African history or culture. Richard Keatinge (talk) 18:06, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

I note the article on Black British starts with a very brief reference to Roman period, the is no reason why it should not now correctly start with Cheddar Man. Cheddar Man maybe the earliest known example, but he belongs to the Category:Black British people -- BOD -- 19:34, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Would anyone object if I were to add a new subcategory of Category:Black British people, namely Category:Prehistoric Black British people, to this page? Richard Keatinge (talk) 10:40, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

I'd strongly object to it for several reasons:

1. Black British is a modern ethnic group. Anachronistically applying it to a person who lived ten thousand years before that group existed is dubious and totally unsupported by reliable sources (not tabloid coverage etc.) The same logic would apply to Category:Prehistoric English people, etc. – it's self-contradictory.
2. Drawing any connection at all between the Cheddar Man and contemporary Black British people is similarly anachronistic. It's invokes the very modern concept of essential races, which is again dubious and totally unsupported by reliable sources.
3. Per WP:NONDEF. Skin colour is not a defining characteristic of prehistoric remains in Britain. It is an interesting aspect of the phenotype of this one individual.
4. Per WP:SMALLCAT. As far as I know, there are no other articles that would potentially fit into such a category.

– Joe (talk) 11:49, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

I second Joe Roe. This is anachronism - Cheddar man was neither black nor British.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 12:20, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Joe. Just to make it clear, I noticed that this article was not part of WikiProject archaeology, added the template to this talk page and mentioned this discussion at the project talk page as it is extremely relevant there and could set a precedent. Doug Weller talk 12:00, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks again. Unless my grasp of the English language lets me down, "Black British" is a description of phenotype and population location, which until now could only be applied as far back as the Roman period because no black people were known to have been British before then. To apply it to Cheddar Man (and probably, in due course, to other members of Britain's Mesolithic population) is a straightforward statement of fact, supported by good science (see https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/02/18/267443.full.pdf, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-017-1808-5).

The Mesolithic western hunter-gatherer population of which Cheddar Man was typical contributes about 10% of the ancestry of that majority of the modern British population who would describe themselves as "white British". Thus the fact of Cheddar Man's dark skin fundamentally challenges, not supports, the modern pseudoscientific concept of essential races. The connection to the modern Black British population is, precisely, phenotype and location. But not recent African ancestry or culture, neither of which is a defining feature of black people.

The only remaining objection is WP:SMALLCAT, a marginal objection as the category does have potential for growth; if this is felt to be cogent the obvious solution, until more British Mesolithic people are subjected to appropriate analysis, would be to include this page in Category:Black British people. Richard Keatinge (talk) 12:32, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Apparently it does let you down. People are not British simply by virtue of being located on the island of Britain, and they are not "black" simply because of the tone of their skin.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 13:12, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

The paper you linked doesn't use the term Black British, or even just Black (capital B/noun form). They are consistent in using phrases like "has dark or black skin", because blackness is far more than a description of a phenotype. So describing the Cheddar Man as Black British is neither a straightforward statement of fact (see the objections above) or supported by good science. Describing people from the classical era as "black" is already stretching it, and this is eight thousand years further removed. – Joe (talk) 13:38, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Object? Yes, certainly, per above. Not so sure about the main category either. Johnbod (talk) 12:50, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

I'm intrigued. Could I ask for your definition of black people, since it seems to be at odds with the article and with reality, perhaps in specific reference to two hypothetical people. One of Australian Aboriginal ancestry, born in Great Britain and brought up there by their biological parents. Another of West African ancestry, born in Britain and brought up from birth by adoptive white parents without significant contact with African culture. Is either of them "black" by your definition? Richard Keatinge (talk) 13:39, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

There is an entire literature on race, on blackness and on black identity in Britain that you could explore to satisfy your curiosity.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 13:53, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Although I am not a professional anthropologist, I do have some awareness of this literature. I would appreciate it if you would apply your knowledge to engage with the issue at hand, namely whether an ancient native of Britain with very dark to black skin can legitimately be labelled either black or British. Or alternatively, whether there is any rational basis for regarding those descriptions as illegitimate, perhaps by limiting "black" to those of recent African ancestry or culture, and "British" to organisms from recorded history. (In which case the publishers of "British Dinosaurs" may need to be told that they have a problem.) Richard Keatinge (talk) 14:06, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

I have applied it above. It cannot. Being black and being british are not mere descriptors of phenotype and place of origin but social categories that make sense to apply to people today, but not to people from 1000 years ago. Making the category it is a bad idea, and you are not helping anyone by pursuing it further.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 14:20, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

To the extent that I can interpret your comment, it seems that you are applying social descriptors that encompass most modern black British people, and asserting that therefore other black British people who don't fall within those social limits are either not black, or not British. Is that what you're saying? It seems a straightforward non sequitur. It also excludes the (few) Roman Britons of demonstrated African ancestry, another result that I cannot regard as anything other than bizarre. Richard Keatinge (talk) 14:39, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

I reiterate my suggestion to familiarize yourself with the literature. But really it is more simple than that. If reliable sources do not describe Cheddar Man as "black british" then neither does wikipedia. So lets pause this discussion untill you present some sources that do exactly that.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 14:52, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

@Richard Keatinge: This discussion is leading nowhere. Several editors, me included, have tried to make you understand that the term Black British has a specific meaning, just like African-American has, and can not be applied to someone from 10K years ago who has only one thing in common with "Black British people", dark skin, and wasn't British since Britain as we know it didn't exist back then (it was a peninsula on a European continent that didn't look anything like Europe looks today...). It's also obvious that your addition of Category:Black British people is not supported by other editors, so why don't you just drop it? - Tom | Thomas.W ^talk 14:53, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Correction. This editor Supports the inclusion of Cheddar Man to the Category:Black British people. He was black and living in the area known as Britain for the last 2400 years. -- BOD -- 15:25, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I wrote "not supported by other editors", I did not not write "not supported by any other editors", so no correction is needed. Those against adding it clearly outweigh those in favour of adding it. - Tom | Thomas.W ^talk 15:36, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

@Maunus: you didn't mean 1000 years! @Bodney: he lived here long before it was known as Britain. Doug Weller talk 15:34, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

That's not at all a useful argument. The article is of course in Category:Stone Age Britain. Please don't join the ranks of the idiots who pop up the whole time objecting to calling Michelangelo etc "Italian". Johnbod (talk) 16:25, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

I was responding to Bodney's comment about 2400 years, which I think was a response to Maunus's 1000 years error. But would you call Julius Caesar an Italian? My point about Cheddar man is we don't know where he came from. He might have come from Doggerland. Does anyone know how far hunter-gatherers might have travelled during this period? Doug Weller talk 16:55, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

He was obviously a Roman first, but plenty of his contemporaries are called Italian. Caesar famously invaded Italia by crossing the Rubicon. Johnbod (talk) 18:14, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

No that was one 0 too few.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 15:50, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Bodney, but Tom's advice is good, since we are clearly not getting a consensus for a reality-based definition. Or for a meaningful discussion of it. I have even failed to tease out what limits other editors are using for "black" and "British". They may wish to rewrite the article Black British, and indeed much of the anthropological literature on the subject, so that it actively excludes a minority of actual black British people. I'll leave that to them. Until I see any signs of changing consensus, I will drop the point. Richard Keatinge (talk) 15:35, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Black British people are people who identify, or are commonly labelled by others, as Black British. That is the very simple "reality-based" definition used in our article Black British and the vast majority of the relevant anthropological/sociological literature (which you profess to have read). The Cheddar Man was only "black" if you pointedly adopt a reductive and antiquated definition of blackness. – Joe (talk) 16:08, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Was Julius Caesar an Italian? Well, by some chronocentric definitions, relating to a specific concatenation of genetic, phenotypic, and social circumstances, no, by other definitions, yes. So, to categorize him as Italian would be reasonable, though some people might have said he didn't fit within their normal personal definition and others might simply have found the issue irrelevant to the concepts they routinely used. Nevertheless, to state that someone born and nurtured within the Italian peninsula definitely wasn't Italian at all would strike me as - peculiar. Now, when we're studying modern British sociology such a limited definition of blackness is useful and it's usually the only definition we need. It only becomes a problem when you over-interpret a rigid version of that definition to exclude some actual black British people... I'll drop it. Richard Keatinge (talk) 18:13, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Not to restart this discussion, but Cheddar Man was not "black" in the modern term. His skin phenotype was either "dark to very dark" brown. He was not sub-Saharan African in any sense of the word, and was not "black British" either, which refers to modern British citizens of sub-Saharan African descent whose ancestors have only been in Britain for 150 - 200 years at most, with the majority only arriving in the past 50 years. Western Hunter Gatherers were, and are (as people like Estonians and Sami still today have most of their ancestry from them) European, and Caucasoid. He had blue eyes, while modern black, sub-Saharan African (Negroid and Capoid) descended people do not. He had wavy hair, not kinky hair (Afro-textured hair) as modern black British, or black sub-Saharan Africans do. He had a narrower nose, not the wider nose found in those of purely sub-Saharan African origin. He has a reduced jaw line and thin lips, not the protruding jaw and thick lips of modern black Africans. He has a heavy, protruding eyebrow and deepened eye sockets typical of many modern Europeans, but not black Africans. He is brachycephalic or mesocephalic like modern northwestern Europeans, while black Africans are highly dolichocephalic. He was not African or Middle Eastern of any legitimate sense either. Western hunter-gatherers had been genetically isolated in Europe for 45,000 years!!!. They were also part Neanderthal (like modern indigenous Europeans still are, but lower today than in the Paleolithic or Mesolithic). Modern black, sub-Saharan Africans do not have Neanderthal ancestry. And Paleolithic or Mesolithic Europeans (Western hunter-gatherers) had been genetically isolated from the ancestors of modern black Africans for anywhere between 70,000 and 100,000 years (and far more in terms of the Neanderthal component, which modern people of black African ancestry do not possess). Cheddar Man in fact, genetically, is far less African than later Neolithic and Bronze Age pale-skinned Europeans are. His physical features are not found in modern Black British or black people either. His skull size and shape, his facial features, his blue eyes, his wavy hair and his genetics are only found in modern indigenous Europeans or those of European ancestry, since Western-hunter gatherer genetics of this population are not found in sub-Saharan Africans. Those with ancestry to the population of Cheddar Man have light skin today, and only they have facial and skull features from that population. Those who most look like Cheddar Man in appearance are modern light-skinned Irish, Highland Scots, Welsh and West Country English (Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Cornwall), or those with the highest WHG ancestry like Estonians.

Furthermore, his skin pigmentation was not black. Even the pigmentation in the Cheddar Man bust is closest to that seen in modern day peoples of India, not Africa. Are Indians black??? Obviously not. Are Tamils and other Dravidians black??? Obviously not. Would any intelligent person call a Tamil or other Indian, or a very dark Arab, in Britain today black?? Of course not. Even Australian aborigines and Papuans and Negritos are not "black" in the way sub-Saharan Africans or 'black British' are. They are genetically and physically extremely different. Physical appearance is not just about skin pigmentation. It is about head size and shape (see human skull, cephalic index, etc.), facial features, eye colour, hair colour, hair texture and a plethora of other attributes. Cheddar Man does not look at all like ANY modern black person or black person of sub-Saharan origins. Also, the only people in the world to have truly black (extremely dark) skin are some sub-Saharan Africans like the Nilotic peoples, and also Pygmies and extremely dark people of western Africa.

The only people in England today who have genetic links with Cheddar Man are those who are indigenous and now light skinned. Modern 'black British' who are of sub-Saharan African ancestry have not had any genetic connection to the WHG population that Cheddar Man was part of for 70,000 - 100,000 years, while not having any genetic connection to the partial Neanderthal ancestry of Cheddar Man. Only modern indigenous Europeans or people of European ancestry do, even though they now have lighter skin than Cheddar Man did in the Mesolithic. Libertas et Veritas (talk) 19:42, 17 March 2018 (UTC)

With regards to Julius Caesar, that is not a valid comparison at all. Julius Caesar shared much of the same genetics as modern indigenous Italians, the same language (Italian is the closest language to Latin, and Latin is still spoken in Vatican City), and had a similar culture (Italian culture derives almost entirely from the Latin and the Italic, especially in the Latium).

Cheddar Man, on the contrast, has very little to no cultural link, no linguistic link and abosolutely ZERO genetic link with modern 'black British' or African people in Britain, or people of black African descent, and hadn't for 70,000 to 100,000 years. Cheddar Man DOES have a larger (though still very small) cultural, linguistic (there is a Mesolithic and Neolithic substrate in Celtic languages like Irish Gaelic and Welsh) and certainly a strong genetic link with modern light skinned ('White British' in census categories), indigenous Anglo-Celtic British peoples like the English, and especially the Irish and Welsh who partially descend from the Western hunter-gatherer population of Mesolithic Europe. Libertas et Veritas (talk) 19:49, 17 March 2018 (UTC)

• Apologies for being late to add to this discussion. Until there are references from reliable sources that indicate that Cheddar Man was or was descended from relatively recent migrant/s to the UK from (for example) Barbados or Nigeria, I oppose inclusion of the "Black British" category in this article. --Shirt58 (talk) 09:43, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

At this edit I have rewritten the article on the basis of the NHM's FAQ and their pre-publication paper. I have also used references in those sources. Since the FAQ includes details about the subsequent genetic inflow into the area, and possible natural selection over the last few thousand years, and since some of the blog etc. comment seems confused on the subject, I have included those details in the article. I hope that suits everyone, but if not, do discuss here. Richard Keatinge (talk) 16:33, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

I remain concerned that 50% of this article is not about the actual subject matter. But the has been many edits including and reverting this additional information that it maybe best to let it settle as it is.-- BOD -- 09:57, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. I appreciate your concerns. I reviewed several papers, and also rather too many of the products of distressed people who are having trouble coping with the idea that the earliest Brits, including a proportion of their personal ancestors, were at least quite dark-skinned. On balance, I now feel it's best to include a very brief explanation of what we now understand of the genetic history of Europe in relation to Cheddar Man. The knowledge may not relieve their distress but it might bring some of them to a slightly better understanding of how biology actually works. Richard Keatinge (talk) 12:46, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

I would like to know what the contentions are with my edits about the genetic contributions of Neolithic and Bronze Age migrations to modern, indigenous (Anglo-Celtic), Britons in the section of this article specifically dealing with this topic? The edit summaries of the reverts from the opposing editor has not been sufficient. I specifically do not understand the opposition to using "indigenous" or "aboriginal", since that is exactly the population of what all of these studies and findings are referring to. They are not referring to foreign or foreign-descended ethnic groups or populations in Britain who only arrived in the past 100 years, but only to those of Mesolithic-Neolithic-Bronze Age ancestry - Celtic peoples and English/Anglo-Saxons; these 3 major groupings include later migrations by related northwestern European people with different frequencies and genetic mutations from the same three large groups. The Anglo-Saxons are known to have been the only migration to have substantially changed genetically regions of mainland Britain (specifically eastern England and lowland Scotland) since the Bronze Age, while the Norwegian Vikings contributed significantly in Orkney and Shetland. Both those groups are varations from a similar Mesolithic-Neolithic-Bronze Age mixture. The study I am including, specifically discusses how the genetics of modern indigenous Celtic Britons - Irish, Welsh and Scots, but also western historically Celtic regions of England like Somerset - have changed very little since the Bronze Age Gaelic Celtic migration 4,000 years ago (Neolithic and Bronze Age migration to Ireland and establishment of the insular Atlantic genome).

On a further note, the Neolithic and Bronze Age contributions are still indigenous. For example, in the Americas, the ancestors of the modern Inuit (the Thule) have only arrived in their present range in Alaska, the Canadian Arctic and Greenland in the past 1,000 to 2,000 years. However, they are still obviously considered aboriginal to those regions and to pre-date the modern arrival of European colonists into those lands in the past 300 years. Other indigenous peoples in the Americas pre-dated their arrival by over 12,000 years. Nobody, however, questions that the Inuit are still the indigenous, aboriginal population of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. Interestingly, the Inuit also absorbed the genetics of an older, less advanced people when they arrived 1,000 to 2,000 years ago, known as the Dorset culture.

Just as the more advanced Thule ancestors of the Inuit mix with the original Dorset culture, so did the more advanced Neolithic and Bronze Age (Celtic first, then Anglo-Saxon) settlers mix with the Mesolithic aboriginals in Britain. And just as the Inuit are still considered indigenous in the modern context, despite having ancestry from arrivals after the first inhabitants, so are the modern Mesolithic-Neolithic-Bronze Age Britons still considered indigenous. There has been very little to no genetic change to Celtic Irish, Scots or Welsh since the Bronze Age - a period of 4,000 years - and little to no change to the English and Lowland Scots since the Anglo-Saxon settlement - a period of 1,500 years.

Any claims that Celtic and Anglo-Saxon peoples of modern Britain are not 'indigenous' because of later Neolithic and Bronze Age origins of their ancestry is unfounded and unsupported. If that were the case, then the Inuit would not be indigenous/aboriginal either (they were pre-dated by the Dorset), nor the Bantu Zulu in South Africa since they only arrived in the past 1,500 years (and they were pre-dated by 100,000 years by the Khoisan), and the Indo-Aryan peoples of northern India would not be indigenous since they were pre-dated by thousands of years by the Dravidians of southern India (with remnants in the north). The Sinhalese have been in Sri Lanka for 2,500 years, but the Veddah people have been there much, much longer. But no one would deny that the Sinhalese are indigenous to Sri Lanka in comparison to the arrival of modern Arabs and Tamils in Sri Lanka, let alone others in the past 100 years.

I hope this elucidates things and stops any insane thinking certain radical left-wing liberal political agendas that somehow Britain has no indigenous ethnic groups. The Irish, Scots, Manx (Gaels), Cornish, Welsh, English, and Orcadians/Shetlanders 'are' the aboriginal/indigenous peoples of the British Isles, in order of time they arrived from oldest to most recent. Go to an Inuit and say he is not indigenous, or a Zulu, or a Bengali, or a Japanese people (Yayoi arrived in Japan 4,000 years ago, but were pre-dated by the Jomon/modern Ainu) - obviously no one with any intelligence would make such a claim.Libertas et Veritas (talk) 01:59, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

You seem to be arguing that any population that has been in a location for long enough is "indigenous". This point is indeed arguable, but in the specific context of an indisputably-original ·population that was later mostly replaced, it is at best ambiguous and it is disputable. Fortunately for this article, it is un-necessary. Here, "the modern population of the area" or "Britons without a recent family history of migration" are unambiguous and accurate. Richard Keatinge (talk) 08:40, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Indigenous is a loaded term when applied to European populations. As Richard has already pointed out, its addition adds absolutely nothing to the article, so there is no reason to muddy the waters with it. Please actually read the edit summaries of people reverting you. And definitely read WP:SYNTH.

The Bronze Age, the Neolithic, the Anglo-Saxons, the Inuit, the Dorset culture, Thule, Alaska, Greenland, the Bantu, Zulu, Khoisan, Indo-Aryans, Dravidians, Sinhalese, Irish, Scots, Manx, Gaels, Cornish, Welsh, English, Orcadians, Shetlanders, Bengalis, Japanese, Ainu, Yayoi, Jomon, and "radical left-wing liberal political agendas" all have one thing in common: they have nothing to do with this topic. This is an encyclopaedia article about the Cheddar Man—a Mesolithic skeleton that was interesting long before anyone extracted DNA from it—not a canvas for amateur musings on palaeogenetics. – Joe (talk) 08:54, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Nothing "amateur" at all about the palaeogenetics of Cheddar Man I have discussed. I present the widely acknowledged, obvious facts based on enormous information from population genetics, history and physical anthropology. Are you upset that I pointed out unquestionable facts? My points are completely relevant to the content used in the article, and the genetic heritage of indigenous Anglo-Celtic British peoples to the Mesolithic population of Cheddar Man is being discussed. "Indigenous" is also not a loaded term whatsoever when applied to the native, aboriginal populations of Europe. Where are you getting this from? The term is clearly and widely used to distinguish the peoples and cultures who are the aboriginal populations of Europe, with ancestry and heritage going back thousands of years to the migrations period (Magyar and Slavs in the east), Bronze Age (Celts, Italics, Germanics in the west; Greeks, Albanians and Slavs in the east) Neolithic (early Mediterranean farmers), Mesolithic and/or Upper Paleolithic (western and eastern hunter-gatherers), to varying extents. This produces the genetic and cultural differences seen among different native European groups. No one denies the Basques are the aboriginal peoples of the Iberian peninsula, whose ancestry and language predates that of all others (Neolithic and Mesolithic), or the same with the Sardinians in Sardinia, of almost wholly Neolithic origin. When referring to Britons today who are of partial Mesolithic ancestry, it is referring to indigenous Britons today who descend from these first, aboriginal inhabitants of the isles (English, Scots, Welsh, Cornish), regardless of their admixture with later Neolithic farmer and especially Bronze Age Yamna/Aryan/proto-Indo-European settlers (Celts and Germanics). The use of the words 'indigenous' or 'aboriginal' are thus accurate and found in studies used when referring to the modern English and Celtic peoples in Britain who are the only ones to have descent to this British sub-group of the Mesolithic Western European hunter gatherer population. In the context of Cheddar Man and its relation to modern populations, indigenous is a highly important term in that it is only indigenous British (Celtic and Anglo-Saxon) populations who have the ancestral genetic connection with him, as well as other western Europeans to a lesser extent. Peoples of foreign, non-European origins or descent (Africans, Middle Easterners, Asians, Oceanic islanders, aborigines of Australia, native Amerindians of North and South America) are obviously not considered indigenous or aboriginal Europeans, as they are not of genetic or cultural descent from the original Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age populations. 2605:8D80:6A0:3C78:2264:C18:1530:BC5E (talk) 04:21, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

It is only indigenous, white, Anglo-Celtic Britons today who have the genetics, ancestry and physical features of the Mesolithic Western Hunter-Gatherers of Britain, with an average of 10% of this ancestry. It was not fully replaced, but absorbed by the Neolithic and Bronze Age Celts of Britain. It is indigenous, lighter-skinned, Anglo-Celtic Britons, especially of southwest England, whom have the genetic and cultural legacy of Cheddar Man and his kin, and most represent him in facial features and other physical appearance. People in Britain of foreign, non-British, non-Western European origin/descent do not have the genetic ancestry to the specific Mesolithic population of Cheddar Man. Aboriginal/indigenous/autochthonous populations are those whose genetic and cultural ancestors have inhabited lands for thousands of years, descending from that population, prior to the arrival of foreign or foreign-descended individuals in recent, modern times. 2605:8D80:6A0:3C78:2264:C18:1530:BC5E (talk) 04:27, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

When I read a sentence like:

"Nuclear DNA was extracted from the petrous part of the temporal bone by a team led by Ian Barnes, of the Natural History Museum in 2018"

I expect the citation of a 2018 publication. Instead, we got press releases and journalism. It was highly suspicious at the time that the involved people would keep talking to the press but would not condescend to publish whatever it was they had found. This was three months ago. Where is the publication? Maybe even a preprint?

It is already extremely bad form to talk to journalists before you publish your paper, but to talk to journalists but then never publish the paper seemed inconceivable, but I couldn't find it. So I checked Barnes' homepage He has three publications dated 2018, one about beavers, one about deer, and one as a co-author in a host of co-authors, on "The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe".

Where is the Cheddar Man paper? Why is Barnes all over the media touting his recent work on the Cheddar Man's genome when he didn't publish anything about it? If the study whimpered and died under peer review, would this not at least require another press relese saying "never mind"? --dab (𒁳) 09:34, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

I checked out the "Beaker" paper to see if there was any mention of Cheddar Man. There isn't, but the paper is pretty interesting in its own right, they find that the Mesolithic population of Britain (WHG, Cheddar Man) was almost entirely replaced after 2000 BC:

"We investigated the magnitude of population replacement in Britain with qpAdm 2 by modelling the genome-wide ancestry of Neolithic, Copper and Bronze Age individuals, including Beaker-complex-associated individuals, as a mixture of continental Beaker-complex-associated samples (using the Oostwoud individuals as a surrogate) and the British Neolithic population (Supplementary Information section 8). During the first centuries after the initial contact, between approximately 2450 and 2000 bc, ancestry proportions were variable (Fig. 3), which is consistent with migrant communities just beginning to mix with the previously established British Neolithic population. After roughly 2000 bc, individuals were more homo- geneous and possessed less variation in ancestry proportions and a modest increase in Neolithic-related ancestry (Fig. 3). This could represent admixture with persisting British populations with high levels of Neolithic-related ancestry or, alternatively, with incoming continental populations with higher proportions of Neolithic-related ancestry. In either case, our results imply a minimum of 90 ± 2% local population turnover by the Middle Bronze Age (approximately 1500–1000 bc), with no significant decrease observed in 5 samples from the Late Bronze Age. Although the exact turnover rate and its geographic pattern await refinement with more ancient samples, our results imply that for individuals from Britain during and after the Beaker period, a very high fraction of their DNA derives from ancestors who lived in continental Europe before 2450 bc. An independent line of evidence for population turnover comes from uniparental markers. Whereas Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b was completely absent in Neolithic individuals (n = 33), it represents more than 90% of the Y chromosomes in individuals from Copper and Bronze Age Britain (n = 52) (Fig. 3).

This is more relevant to Bronze Age Britain, but at least it suggests that all the journalists treating Cheddar Man as the ancestor of the British should think again. The descendants of poor Cheddar Man were pretty much eradicated by Bronze Age invaders even 1,000 years before the first Celts set foot in Britain. --dab (𒁳) 09:47, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Two points about Cheddar Man seem to have caught the public interest. One, the first contributors to the current British gene pool contributed only about 10% or less of it. Later immigrants contributed the rest. Two, the first immigrant population probably had dark skins and blue eyes. Those points have dominated the news coverage. The dark skin finding is not new with or unique to Cheddar Man, though it does seem to be new in the public consciousness. The real point is that he was typical of the Western European hunter-gatherer population. The genetic history of Britain is another article.

As someone pointed out, Cheddar Man himself wasn't worth a paper, but he is well and truly in https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/18/267443.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Keatinge (talk • contribs)

Thank you for the preprint. The relevant section should now be based on this.

S. Brace et al., "Population Replacement in Early Neolithic Britain" biorxiv preprint (unpublished), 18 February 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/267443.

The "public interest" appears to be entirely based on race-baiting and semantic games surrounding the term "immigrant", in my mind a clear abuse of genetics for current-day ideological purposes -- this is why I am of the opinion that no journalism should be allowed in our paleoanthropology or genetic genealogy article outside of "in popular culture" sections. --dab (𒁳) 15:35, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Fwiiw, the debate on European skin pigmentation alleles should be delegated to light skin or genetic history of Europe. Pertinent literature is already cited at: SLC24A5#Effect_on_skin_color and SLC45A2#Function. According to this (2012), there was a "proto-Eurasian" "initial sweep" about 30 ka, shared by Western and Eastern Eurasians (this is the "dark skin" of WHG), and the European-specific "selective sweeps at SLC24A5, SLC45A2, and TYRP1 " beginning about 19 ka (during the LGM). According to this (2015), the oldest known ancient DNA with this allele dates to 13 ka and was found in the Caucasus. --dab (𒁳) 16:19, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Dbachmann. At this diff I have refocused the article on academic sources and on the individual in the title. Foe completeness I have left in some information about later population replacement. I hope this helps. Richard Keatinge (talk) 12:56, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

At this diff material - though not the source refs - was removed with the comment "source retracted". Where is this retraction? Richard Keatinge (talk) 13:21, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

OK, it seems that these refs ^{[1] [2]} are what we are talking about. They are not retractions. They do make it clear that the scientific basis for ascribing skin colour is weaker than the basis for ascribing the other phenotypes mentioned. I trust that the current version makes this clear. I have left the New Scientist reference in for the moment, but the point about uncertainty is more academically made by Walsh et al and I feel that the New Scientist reference could reasonably be removed. Richard Keatinge (talk) 14:22, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

I have again restored the information about probable skin colour. We now have an academically-defensible account. Please do not remove referenced information without consensus. Richard Keatinge (talk) 09:05, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Why is Cheddar Man's male haplogroup not known, when his entire genome was mapped? Oh and by the way - the people who left Africa 45,000 years ago were of the Black phenotype - like the Andamanese, the Semang, the Melanesians and more. Get used to it. 83.84.100.133 (talk) 14:31, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Hello, the out of Africa theory remains a theory with no actual evidence proving it to be correct or factual.

Human remains have been found around the world pre-dating 45,000 years, in fact some over 500,000 years.

Pre humans dating back millions of years existed outside Africa.

The Africa theory is not a good example. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C8:8580:1C00:60E2:179B:6D02:1ED2 (talk) 06:58, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

Did he have dark to black skin? most likely not.

One of the leading experts who worked on the reconstruction of his face and with the genetics team states, we simply don't know his skin colour.

The Geneticist came under scrutiny after her co-worker and the global media rallied to promote this theory as a fact.

The global medias published he had blue eyes and dark skin, so was she being racist, was she lying, why was she arguing this after the world has been told he had dark skin?

Her claim was and is supported, there is no evidence what so ever the Cheddar man had dark to black skin.

Modern politics was blamed. Modern beliefs on equality and diversity have been common in all aspects of science.

There is a very clear promotion of a theory we all came from Africa or Asia.

For example, the out if Africa (theory) remains a belief, there is no evidence to support it as factual, and there is actually a lot of evidence showing humans did not all come from Africa.

Yet, the oldest pre-human with human DNA was found in Europe, this theory shines a light on pre-human migration, how humans evolved outside Africa and migrated into Africa.

What some academics have said about the modern push, reverse racism, racist science. It's down to opinion, however, Genetics experts have said they are unhappy with the statement the Cheddar man had dark skin with the lack of evidence, that and the fact no other relatives have been found, he was one and one only and the possibility of the Cheddar man being a migrant was still possible meaning he could have been born abroad.

There seems to be a culture growing within science to prove all of the earth was African, dark-skinned or ethnic prior Celt ancestry, however, there is no evidence, only chosen theories.

What we have is another theory, one that many including academics say has been debunked.

The Cheddar man's skin colour is unknown to this day.

2A00:23C8:8580:1C00:60E2:179B:6D02:1ED2 (talk) 06:53, 5 May 2020 (UTC)Sreader.

Let's reach a solution on the presentation of the controversies over Brace 2018, its interpretation in the previous version of the article, and the paper's stance on "dark to very dark skin" among other findings. Many of the assertions in the previous version are not supported by the sources (e.g Brown eyes originating ) and as well as a lack of detail in the contrary stances, there are general wording issues. But I would be happy to work to reach a neutral and comprehensive layout for the page. PLease suggest below any rewording or refocuses, or suggestion to remove or change any of my recent edits. I have endeavoured to represent the sources presented but if anyone believes I have overstepped then you are welcome to say where and how. Vaurnheart (talk) 15:13, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

I do not have problems with Brace et al, but I do with other aspects of the article. You have added "The chosen sample is therefore certain to associate the absence of those genes with dark skin, despite this not proving true when the sample is expanded." This is cited to Walsh et al, which does not mention Cheddar Man, and appears to be part of a paragraph of your own synthesis. The sources which say Cheddar Man had a dark skin are reliable, whereas the main one questioning it is a sensationalist New Scientist article which is not reliable, together with (so far as I can see) articles which do not mention Cheddar Man. The claim that the skin pigmentation is disputed should be deleted unless there are reliable academic sources directly controverting the finding of the leading experts who wrote the Brace article. The New Scientist article should in any case be deleted as a source. Dudley Miles (talk) 18:58, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

I started a post last night which I see I never finished. I was going to mention the problem with Walsh as well, see WP:SYNTHESIS. You need sources discussing the subject of the article, and I agree about deleting the NS source and the disputed claim unless you can find better sources. Doug Weller talk 08:54, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

I agree with Dudley Miles above. While some of your comments may be arguable, I am not convinced that any part of them is an improvement on the current version. Richard Keatinge (talk) 13:52, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

Walsh et al. demonstrates that, in skin colour reconstruction in general, the findings become far more accurate when expanded to a 194-sample model from 17 populations as opposed to a 10-SNP-classifier model. This is simply to demonstrate that, in principal, a geographically restricted sample size is a major flaw when it comes to modern comparitive samples. I would be happy to reword the sentence, however, to show this more clearly (since it was not intended to refer to Cheddar Man specifically - only in principal). The New Scientist is used abundantly on Wikipedia, and just as potentially "sensationalist" sources such as the Natural History Museum's article have been cited (which also happens to use the opinion of one of the researchers as its basis, in much the same way), it is entirely fair to include it. Naturally this a very recent topic and "journalistic" articles are the main coverage form as of the present. In conclusion, the skin pigmentation matter of Cheddar Man specifically is, far from being just "disputed", is very tentative in its origin (perhaps the most tentative conclusion in the whole paper) and we are nowhere near consensus on the skin colour of Cheddar Man (and other Mesolithic Western Europeans). It is, of course quite, unusual to claim that a paper published in 2018 with, as of yet, little to no follow-up research is a undisputed fact and point of consensus among geneticists.

I will start drafting a revised version of my edits here and we can go into more depth as to what form the article should take to best represent the current variety of stances and their arguments. Many thanks for your interest, Vaurnheart (talk) 13:29, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

In reply to the above statement, the New scientist Article is the only source. Here are a few other sources below, not limited to. Sources:

- The Daily Mail - Stating Scientists around the world have stated its impossible to determine skin colour. The group who predicted the colour of skin are not the only scientists on earth, or professionals nor are they regarded as the best.

- Indiana University - We do not know his skin colour.

- Natural History Museum - We predicted his skin colour. (Prediction alone is not basis for factual statements), example: The news today predicts sun with light showers, outcome = No sun or rain, just clouds.

- Colin Barras, Human Origins, Scientist & Writer - Our ancestors who reached the UK 30.000 years ago had plenty of time to evolve white skin.

- World Press - The statement (The first Britons were black) is false and incorrectly thrown around as we have human remains that are 3000 to 4000 years older than the Cheddar Man that DOES NOT share his DNA and has no indication of having dark to black skin.

Wikipedia - The oldest human remains found in the UK are around 500.000 years old, (no evidence of dark to black skin), Neanderthals dating to around 400,000, Oxford University & British Museum press, European Journal of Genetics.

The statement (The First Britons) had dark to black skin is evidence of modern discrimination & potential scientific racism within modern science, or what is being known as reverse-racism based on the (fact) the first humans in the UK dated back hundreds of thousands of years before the Cheddar Man and the (fact) he was one in a kind, just one male with no other kin in the entire UK, we have just one man who may have been dark to black skinned which is not sufficient evidence to prove the first the first Britons as a whole people had dark to Black skin.

The oldest pre-human remains on earth have been discovered in Europe, this alone can prove the Out of Africa theory as false, yet the discovery of one set of remains does not qualify the theory wrong, even if they are older than the remains found in Africa.

It is a prediction that the Cheddar Man may have had dark to black skin, there is no concrete evidence however to prove such a thing. The source supplied was pone of the leading Scientists on the examining team, you cannot get a better source than the scientist who actually studied the DNA.

The fact remains - Did the Cheddar man have dark to black skin, we do not know and there is no evidence of such. 2A00:23C8:8580:1C00:C425:2DFE:927B:3FFF (talk) 11:56, 1 September 2020 (UTC)Sreader.

You need to supply links to your sources. Assertions without links are not helpful. Dudley Miles (talk) 12:22, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

I'm also concerned about your historical map of skin color,which you describe as being "based on the scientific consensus at the time of creation". It appears to be based on rather a lot of original research, in particular discounting the evidence - which we agree is imperfect - for darker skin color among Western Hunter Gatherers in general and Cheddar Man in particular. By way of support for this comment, I note that the map is derived from https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0000027 A traditional skin color map based on the data of Biasutti. Reproduced from http://anthro.palomar.edu/vary/ with permission from Dennis O'Neil." - which isn't available, and seems to be referenced to Relethford 1998, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199712)104:4%3C449::AID-AJPA2%3E3.0.CO;2-N, which in turn doesn't seem to support any historical change element and was published too long ago to use any of the more recent genetic data. The reference to Biasutti as the source of the original data appears to refer to Renato Biasutti, who died in 1965 and as far as I can see made no attempt to do much beyond documenting characteristics of then-living populations.

Additional references include "Development of paler skin genes SLC24A5 and SLC45A2-F374 from Scandinavia: Günther T, Malmström H, Svensson EM, Omrak A, Sánchez-Quinto F, Kılınç GM, et al. (2018) Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation. PLoS Biol 16(1): e2003703. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003703 - which is relevant to skin color in Mesolithic Sweden but not in the British Isles. And "Convergent development of light skin among Palaeolithic East Asians and the later development of darker skin gene variations of MFSD12 among Native Americans: Kaustubh Adhikari, et al. A GWAS in Latin Americans highlights the convergent evolution of lighter skin pigmentation in Eurasia. Nature Communications, 2019; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-08147-0" again doesn't speak to the characteristics of the Western Hunter Gatherer population.

I commend your industry in generating this file, and some of it may be arguable, but overall it is original research and it also offers spurious accuracy. I feel that your file should not be used in its current form anywhere on Wikipedia, and I will ask on its talk page for its withdrawal until suitably amended. Richard Keatinge (talk) 13:52, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your interest Richard.

I do not agree that this map is a product of original research - it is based on a combination of the most solid data we have available in addition to the blanks filled in with the least controversial stances on the subject. For example, we know we a high degree of confidence that by ~7,700 BC at the latest (contemporary with Cheddar Man) Scandinavians had much the same features as the present, include the pale skin genes mentioned above. Current theories (including those accepted by Dr Thomas Booth who was the main advisor for the latest Cheddar Man wax model) find it likely that those genes originated from Scandinavia and spread throughout Europe, North Africa and India to various degrees of combination with other pigmentation alleles. As a result it is depicted on the map. We also know that the first settlers of the Americas (during the Epipalaeolithic) had the same light skin genes as their ancestors in East Asia (which are , which then became darker in Mesoamerica. Western Europe is not a subject of that matter, but it is interesting that the same latitude produced light skin (12-14 pigmentation in Walsh's research(apologies - I meant Barsh 2003)) deep into the glacial period in East Asia, so could easily be theorised to have had a similar effect in the Mediterranean during its settlement during the same period of prehistory.

The depiction of Palaeolithic Europeans, North Africans and many Near Easterners being of 12-14 pigmentation - as the present - is therefore a "filling in of the gap" based on the least extraordinary interpretation of events, since we cannot yet tell what their skin colour was. I am confident this rendition would be quite mundane in circles beyond those of Brace 2018's supporters. If there is anything specific you wish to point out as being potentially original research, please do and I shall see if I can explain what it was based on. Naturally this map summarises a great deal of less controversial research in addition, such as the existence of Doggerland and the timing of the settlement of Madagascar and New Zealand.

If you wish to create your own maps of alternative stances to this one, I am sure they would be welcome on the article alongside the map I created, to show visually the various theories. I have a fascination for prehistory and I would be very interested to see what Brace 2018's theory looks like on such a map, and how it interacts with the advent of pale skin in Scandinavia and with the settement of the Americas. I would be happy to send you the PNG templates I used to make my map, which used Barsh 2003's modern map as a starting point and format guide. I used Paint.NET to create them and EZgif to make the gif. Vaurnheart (talk) 13:06, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Thanks again for your hard work. Unfortunately it is the gap-filling that makes it original research, and the existing format requires quite a lot of that. In a fast-moving field, guesses also mean that it's likely to be outdated very quickly. (I should say that I'm no sort of expert on the subject matter, I have merely looked at the references you give and I see the odd headline.) My attention was particularly drawn by the confident depiction of evolution in and around the Andes, and the limited changes depicted in southern and eastern Africa despite the known Bantu expansion. I've tried to think of a way of overcoming the limits to the data so as to present a solidly-based picture that allows for easy updating as science progresses in the area. I've come across a couple of maps that similarly try to depict a changing situation with uncertain details. They are End of Roman Rule in Britain and Britain c. 540 They are careful to avoid firm boundaries and they use question marks as appropriate. I wonder if they give you any inspiration for a more defensible and future-proof version? I'll take the liberty of copying this comment and your preceding remark to the picture's talk page where any further discussion should probably take place and which I'll keep on my watch list. Richard Keatinge (talk) 09:46, 25 July 2020 (UTC)