The presence of the cannibalistic deposits from the earlier Paleolithic occupation of Gough’s Cave adds a layer of complexity to the site’s history.

Whatever practices those earlier visitors were engaged in, they predated Cheddar Man by approximately four to five thousand years.

The Paleolithic people who processed bodies in the cave were not the same people as Cheddar Man’s community, and the practices they engaged in may not have been part of Cheddar Man’s world at all.

The specific nature of Cheddar Man’s burial — or the depositional event that placed his remains in the cave — is not fully established.

He may have been deliberately buried there by his community, in which case the cave had ceremonial or spiritual significance as a burial place.