The result was striking: a young man with a dark complexion, striking blue eyes, curly dark hair, and facial features shaped by the morphology of the underlying skull.

The reconstruction looked nothing like the earlier models of Cheddar Man that had given him light skin.

When the reconstruction was unveiled in February 2018 as part of a Channel 4 documentary and a Natural History Museum exhibition, the response was substantial.

The image circulated widely on social media and in news coverage, generating the kind of engagement that few scientific discoveries produce.

Part of the response was simple surprise — the face was unexpected, the blue-eyed dark-skinned combination was visually distinctive, and the connection of this ancient individual to modern British identity was obvious.