“Unlocking the Past: New Discoveries Reveal That Europe’s Ancient Inhabitants Were Surprisingly Dark-Skinned!”
Did you ever think about the skin tones of our prehistoric ancestors? It turns out that the story of human pigmentation in Europe is more colorful than you might expect! A jaw-dropping new study shakes up what we thought we knew, revealing that a whopping 63 percent of ancient Europeans sported dark skin, while just a fraction—only 8 percent—had light skin. That’s right—if you’d traveled back 10,000 years to hang out with Cheddar Man (a real dude, by the way), you’d likely find him with dark skin and blue eyes, not the fair-skinned figure many might assume. This research, which analyzed 348 genetic samples from 34 countries, suggests that the bright complexions we associate with Europe today only really began to flourish around 3,000 years ago! So, what gives? Why the shift? Let’s dive into the findings that might flip your perceptions of European ancestry upside down!
Analysis of 348 genetic samples taken from 34 countries revealed that, across prehistoric and ancient Europe, 63 percent of people had dark skin, 29 percent had “intermediate” skin, and only 8 percent had light skin.
Channel 4/Plimsol ProductionsA recreation of the “Cheddar Man,” a Briton who lived 10,000 years ago and had dark skin and blue eyes.
Light skin is a relatively recent feature of Europeans, according to a groundbreaking new study. While prior research has shown that many prehistoric humans across the continent had darker skin tones, the results of this new study suggest that dark skin may have lasted until much more recently that previously believed — with fair skin only emerging prominently around 3,000 years ago.
Most Europeans Had Dark Complexions Well Into The Iron Age
The scientific consensus has long been that the first humans emerged in Africa and then gradually dispersed from there across the rest of the world. It’s also believed that as these prehistoric humans settled across the northern regions — what we now recognize as the European continent — their complexions eventually lightened.
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