Last night I was making the below image for a short article explaining why Western Hunter-Gatherers were not “black” (I will publish the longer version some other time).
I noticed that the Loschbour Man reconstruction video (https://youtu.be/2NJ6Ks9qwRQ?t=382) clearly uses different lighting on his skull versus his face, subtly darkening the image to the point that his features blend into the background. The difference is pretty subtle, but it’s definitely there.
Something similar was done to the La Brana Man facial reconstruction sketches used in the press release (https://phys.org/news/2014-01-spanish-hunter-gatherer-blue-eyes-dark.html). It looks like someone messed with the brightness/contrast levels and darkened the whole image. You can see that it looks pretty unnatural and grayed-out compared to the adjusted version below. Again, the difference is small but it’s definitely there. I’ve been photoshopping things for a long time, so it’s quite easy to spot these minor tweaks.
The same thing was done to the new Cheddar Man reconstruction, whose pigmentation was already way darker than it should have been. Compare the sculpture in natural lighting to the press shot used by the media. Zero subtlety.
Anyway, in my forthcoming article, I’ll explain why WHG were neither “Black” (racially Sub-Saharan African) nor “black” (very dark-skinned). The Loschbour Man reconstruction is probably pretty close to their actual pigmentation: An intermediate, olive, or tanned skin tone, similar to modern-day Inuits or Mediterranean Europeans during the peak of summer.
At the darkest, WHG pigmentation may have been similar to that of a modern gulf Arab or a Native American. We know that they weren’t white-skinned but there is no way that they were “black.”
Thuletide 
Their loxism is over 9000 units.
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I read an article where you say Arabs are Caucasians. They aren’t. If they are, why do they have darker skin?
Also I used fake email if that is ok.
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I recommend you always use a fake email for everything.
“Caucasian” really means “someone from the Caucasus,” the region in Russia that borders the Middle East. “Caucasoid” is the racial group, which is also known as West Eurasian. East Eurasian is East Asian or “Mongoloid,” and South Eurasian is Oceanian or “Australoid.”
Europeans / White people are a sub-group of Caucasoids. All White people are Caucasoids but not all Caucasoids are White people, just like all Germans are European but not all Europeans are German.
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They are “Caucasians” but they are also mixed, they have a portion of Australoid & Negroid ancestry. I think classifications were done based on skull comparisons rather than an ethnic group being prototypically representative of a “Caucasian.”
Idk if Thuletide has done anything about ancient Babylonians, but this is an alleged inscription:
A 4000 year-old inscription by Sumerian Lu-dingir-Ra:
“We migrated to where we are living now thousands of years ago, but they were unable to write down from where because they did not know how to write then. Later on inquisitive scribes and archivists in the royal palace studied the orally transmitted information in an attempt to find out about the past. Our people came to this land from a mountainous country to the northeast. But it is also said that some of them had come via sea from a land called Dilmun in the east. And the reason behind this migration is said to be the onset of an unexplained drought in their warm and rainy country.
Great Enlil had some of us ‘darkheads’ settle here… According to rumours and the results of my research as to why we have called ourselves ‘darkheads.’ I found out that before our forefathers migrated here, blonde haired and blue eyed people were living next to their country. I cannot visualise a person with blonde hair and blue eyes. And I don’t think it would be nice. I have not seen any person like that in my country”.
I can’t find any confirmation of this being an actual inscription, but there are most certainly ancient “myths” of Aratta, a city or civilisation that was known to them as being north of Sumer. They weren’t considered myths by the people back then, but recorded fact.
Aratta could be somewhere around the Ukraine & Ararat region (near Yamnaya origin).
“Dilmun” could be the Indus Valley?
In any case, Indo-European tribes did conquer the Middle-East & India, and they left their genetic legacy, but that was before the Arabic/ Muslim conquests. You’ll a higher concentration of paternal R1 haplogroups in India than in the Middle East/ Levant/ North Africa, despite Europeans being present in the archaeological findings in those areas.
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Thanks for putting together an easily shared post. The Cheddar Man bunkum was proclaimed to the high heavens by the press over here at the time.
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If memory serves, most of the Sardinian’s population is WHG which makes them the closest living relatives to the original WHG populations. I would imagine that, for the most part, the people of the time (as you stated in your article) would look most similar to modern day Mediterranean people.
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You are mixing up Western Hunter-Gatherers (indigenous European hunter-gatherers) with Early European Farmers (who migrated from Anatolia and replaced them). But Sardinians are very similar to EEF, almost identical. Northeast Europeans are the most similar to WHG.
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Not really.
Basque have more WHG, other have mother EHG.
Central sardinians have a “basque-like” WHG.
Read this genetic study, thanks.
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?361733-WHG-rate-among-Sardinians-from-different-area
We documented fine-scale variation in the ancient population ancestry proportions across the island. The most remote and interior areas of Sardinia – the Gennargentu Massif covering the central and eastern regions, including the present day province of Ogliastra, are thought to have been the least exposed to contact with outside populations27,29,50. We find pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer and Neolithic farmer ancestry are enriched in this region of isolation. Under the premise that Ogliastra has been more buffered from recent immigration to the island, one interpretation of the result is that the early populations of Sardinia were an admixture of the two ancestries, rather than the pre-Neolithic ancestry arriving via later migrations from the mainland. Such admixture could have occurred principally on the island or on the mainland prior to the hypothesized Neolithic era influx to the island. Under the alternative premise that Ogliastra is simply a highly isolated region that has differentiated within Sardinia due to genetic drift, the result would be interpreted as genetic drift leading to a structured pattern of pre-Neolithic ancestry across the island, in an overall background of high Neolithic ancestry.
Central sardinians have more WHG than any North Eastern and North Eastern Italy.
Sardinians from the nuragic pariod had 17% of WHG (average), some have even 20%.
Fucking huge dude.
Zero EHG.
“Mediterraneans” for me, means like Maghrebi, sicilians (close to Ashkenazi on many PCA), etc. All hybrid people.
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you are posting unrelated stuff and giving a gibberish explanation that will confuse the guy.
he said “most of the Sardinian’s population is WHG” which is not true, they are something like 90% Anatolian Farmer
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Yes but even Anatolians primary ancestry is ancestral WHG, probably around the time of the LGM WHG ancestors migrated into Anatolia regions and mixed with Dzudzuana/ basal Eurasian related population- Sardinians are significantly WHG overall
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anatolians primarily descend from dzudzuana, not from whg
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That was fascinating. Subscribing… I’m starting research on man 75,000 years ago. I’ll see if your blog has anything on that.
Thanks for a fascinating article.
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You might want to check to the pigmentation analysis software itself used with Cheddar Man analysis, Hirisplex. I am 98% finnish, 2% nordic, with corresponding skin color, yet Hirisplex tells me that I am dark skinned. It’s not a perfect software and contrary to what they act, they don’t have all the mutations and mechanisms that contribute to skin color. What if Cheddar Man case is similar to mine, dark according to software, but very light skin in reality?
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ty for the tip, but yes I know about hirisplex – terrible and useless software. it can’t even predict modern populations accurately. it calls uighurs and oroqens black!
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