Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
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Western Hunter Gatherers and the Evolution of Blue & Green Eyes…
Chapters:
0:00 Western Hunter Gatherers and the Ice Age
2:21 Cheddar Man
3:31 Appearance
5:27 Eye Color
6:31 Larger Sample Size
Who were the Western Hunter Gatherers, what did they actually look like and how common were blue and green eyes amongst them? In one of my last videos on the Origin and Reason for Blue Eyes, I noted that Western Hunter Gatherers largely had lighter eyes and they are an extremely early example of the trait of blue and green eyes being common in Europe, a trend that has continued until today. In this video, I want to expand on this, delving more into who the Western Hunter Gatherers were, what did they actually look like and how common were blue eyes amongst them?
Now Western Hunter Gatherers were one of three main groups in ancient Europe following the last ice age, along with Scandinavian Hunter Gatherers and Eastern Hunter Gatherers, with Scandinavian Hunter Gatherers formed from a mix of Western and Eastern Hunter Gatherers. Western Hunter Gatherers are general grouped as hunter gatherers who lived in modern Britian and Ireland in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east that run through the likes of Romania and Slovakia.
So this is all to say that this is the context when the Western Hunter Gatherers lived, I imagine quite a challenging and difficult time to live. But what did they look like?
Sources:
Western Hunter-Gatherer - Wikipedia
Olalde I,. Derived immune and ancestral pigmentation alleles in a 7,000-year-old Mesolithic European. Nature. 2014 Mar 13;507(7491):225-8. doi: 10.1038/nature12960. Epub 2014 Jan 26. PMID: 24463515; PMCID: PMC4269527. Derived Immune and Ancestral Pigmentation Alleles in a 7,000-Year-old Mesolithic European - PMC (nih.gov)
BRITICE Glacial Map v2.0 (arcgis.com)
European Hunter-Gatherers Had Dark Skin, Blue Eyes | Sci.News
Hunter-gatherer European had blue eyes and dark skin - bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25885519
Posth, C., Yu, H., Ghalichi, A. et al. Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers. Nature 615, 117–126 (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05726-0
Simões LG, et al. Genomic ancestry and social dynamics of the last hunter-gatherers of Atlantic France. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Mar 5;121(10):e2310545121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2310545121. Epub 2024 Feb 26. PMID: 38408241; PMCID: PMC10927518. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10927518
Ancient 'dark-skinned' Briton Cheddar Man find may not be true - newscientist.com/article/2161867-ancient-dark-skinned-briton-cheddar-man-find-may-not-be-true
Cheddar Man: Mesolithic Britain's blue-eyed boy - nhm.ac.uk/discover/cheddar-man-mesolithic-britain-blue-eyed-boy.html
Skin colour and vitamin D: An update onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/exd.14142
Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer - Wikipedia
Eastern Hunter-Gatherer - Wikipedia
Younger Dryas - Wikipedia
Creative Commons Imagery:
Posth, C., Yu, H., Ghalichi, A. et al. File:Genetic ancestry of hunter-gatherers dated between 14 ka and 9 ka (WHG highlighted).png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International | Creative Commons
Geni File:Cheddar Man upper body.JPG - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International | Creative Commons
Werner Ustorf File:Cheddar Man, National History Museum, London.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic | Creative Commons
Robert A. Rohde from published data and is part of the Global Warming Art project. File:CLIMAP.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported | Creative Commons
#ancestry #westernhuntergatherers #eyecolor
Watch Next: What is the Origin & Reason for Blue Eyes? youtube.com/watch?v=GZjAHA_G004&t=315s
Please Buy Me a Coffee - buymeacoffee.com/celtichistory
Please support this channel on Patreon and get ad-free videos and other benefits: patreon.com/historydecoded
Subscribe to Celtic History Decoded: youtube.com/channel/UCCS3M_uNHH2iOJkpGhkO2SA?sub_confirmation=1
Check out my merch store and please help support this channel - celtic-history-decoded.creator-spring.com - Full terms and conditions can be found on Spring’s website.
Follow Celtic History Decoded on Instagram - instagram.com/celtichistorydecoded
Follow Celtic History Decoded on Tik Tok - tiktok.com/@celtichistorydecoded
Western Hunter Gatherers and the Evolution of Blue & Green Eyes…
Chapters:
0:00 Western Hunter Gatherers and the Ice Age
2:21 Cheddar Man
3:31 Appearance
5:27 Eye Color
6:31 Larger Sample Size
Who were the Western Hunter Gatherers, what did they actually look like and how common were blue and green eyes amongst them? In one of my last videos on the Origin and Reason for Blue Eyes, I noted that Western Hunter Gatherers largely had lighter eyes and they are an extremely early example of the trait of blue and green eyes being common in Europe, a trend that has continued until today. In this video, I want to expand on this, delving more into who the Western Hunter Gatherers were, what did they actually look like and how common were blue eyes amongst them?
Now Western Hunter Gatherers were one of three main groups in ancient Europe following the last ice age, along with Scandinavian Hunter Gatherers and Eastern Hunter Gatherers, with Scandinavian Hunter Gatherers formed from a mix of Western and Eastern Hunter Gatherers. Western Hunter Gatherers are general grouped as hunter gatherers who lived in modern Britian and Ireland in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east that run through the likes of Romania and Slovakia.
So this is all to say that this is the context when the Western Hunter Gatherers lived, I imagine quite a challenging and difficult time to live. But what did they look like?
Sources:
Western Hunter-Gatherer - Wikipedia
Olalde I,. Derived immune and ancestral pigmentation alleles in a 7,000-year-old Mesolithic European. Nature. 2014 Mar 13;507(7491):225-8. doi: 10.1038/nature12960. Epub 2014 Jan 26. PMID: 24463515; PMCID: PMC4269527. Derived Immune and Ancestral Pigmentation Alleles in a 7,000-Year-old Mesolithic European - PMC (nih.gov)
BRITICE Glacial Map v2.0 (arcgis.com)
European Hunter-Gatherers Had Dark Skin, Blue Eyes | Sci.News
Hunter-gatherer European had blue eyes and dark skin - bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25885519
Posth, C., Yu, H., Ghalichi, A. et al. Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers. Nature 615, 117–126 (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05726-0
Simões LG, et al. Genomic ancestry and social dynamics of the last hunter-gatherers of Atlantic France. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Mar 5;121(10):e2310545121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2310545121. Epub 2024 Feb 26. PMID: 38408241; PMCID: PMC10927518. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10927518
Ancient 'dark-skinned' Briton Cheddar Man find may not be true - newscientist.com/article/2161867-ancient-dark-skinned-briton-cheddar-man-find-may-not-be-true
Cheddar Man: Mesolithic Britain's blue-eyed boy - nhm.ac.uk/discover/cheddar-man-mesolithic-britain-blue-eyed-boy.html
Skin colour and vitamin D: An update onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/exd.14142
Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer - Wikipedia
Eastern Hunter-Gatherer - Wikipedia
Younger Dryas - Wikipedia
Creative Commons Imagery:
Posth, C., Yu, H., Ghalichi, A. et al. File:Genetic ancestry of hunter-gatherers dated between 14 ka and 9 ka (WHG highlighted).png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International | Creative Commons
Geni File:Cheddar Man upper body.JPG - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International | Creative Commons
Werner Ustorf File:Cheddar Man, National History Museum, London.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic | Creative Commons
Robert A. Rohde from published data and is part of the Global Warming Art project. File:CLIMAP.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported | Creative Commons
#ancestry #westernhuntergatherers #eyecolor
