Greetings On the same Breakfast programme one of the presenters expressed great surprise that people living in the locality of where Cheddar man was found had the same mtDNA as he did. Why is this so surprising? Everyone of us alive today had an ancestor living at the time of Cheddar man. If that were not the case, we would not be here! Tests had shown that he was haplogroup U which appears to have been of Middle Eastern origin. >From where does the BBC believe that our DNA arises if not from our ancestors? It is this very fact that allows genetic genealogy to trace our deep ancestry. The same surprise has previously been registered by the BBC for other similar examples. Regrettably I cannot claim any relationship to Cheddar man as I am mtDNA haplogroup H. Regards John Message: 1 Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:48:14 -0000 From: "Josephine Jeremiah" <jojeremiah@dsl.pipex.com> Subject: [B&S] Sculls in Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset -- BBC news article To: bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <op.vq1heo0x42w82j@glasydorlan> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15; format=flowed; delsp=yes This morning, on the BBC News, I caught the tail end of a feature on Cheddar Caves. Afterwards, I found a BBC news article on sculls, in Gough's Cave, Cheddar, which could once have been used as drinking cups. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12478115 At the end of the television feature Cheddar Man was mentioned. I see that there is a BBC article on Cheddar Man here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/somerset/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9392000/9392086.stm -- Josephine Jeremiah www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com