At 10,000 years old, Cheddar Man is a comparative youngster in the world Palaeoanthropology, however he is the oldest Briton yet discovered. His almost complete, skeleton was found near the entrance to Goughs Cavern in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset in 1903. He was a western European, Mesolithic, hunter gatherer of the Magdalenian culture. The same culture that produced the magnificent cave paintings of south western France (sadly no such art was found in or around Cheddar Gorge). His grave is unusual in that he was buried alone, whilst at that time communal burial was the norm (near by in Burrington Combe, can be found the largest Mesolithic burial site in the UK, containing at least 50 individuals), although it is believed that a lot of other bones may have been discarded during the initial exploration of the cave.

Cheddar Man was about five and a half feet tall and died in his early twenties. His death was probably due a head injury, although it is difficult to know.

DNA analysis reveals him to be dark skinned and blue eyed.

His ancestors were not however the precursors of the modern day population. Some time after his death, two large-scale prehistoric migrations into Britain produced significant changes in the population. Both of these migrations into Britain represented westward movements of populations across Europe. In both cases, these migrating populations intermixed with local people as they moved. Therefore the majority of later British Mesolithic hunter-gatherers probably originate from populations who lived all over Europe during the Mesolithic and moved into Britain in these later migrations.