Western Hunter-Gatherers were not a single tribe or community but a broadly related population whose genetic profile reflects a shared ancestry that spread through Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum — the period of maximum Ice Age glaciation that ended around 20,000 years ago. As the ice retreated and habitable land expanded northward, human groups moved into new territories. The Western Hunter-Gatherer genetic profile reflects the ancestry of populations that expanded through western and central Europe during this period.
The finding that Cheddar Man belonged to the Western Hunter-Gatherer population was noted by Professor Mark Thomas of UCL as something that ancient DNA geneticists had expected: his genetic profile placed him “with several other Mesolithic-era Europeans” from Spain, Hungary, and Luxembourg. What the finding provided, as Thomas observed, was a British data point — a genome from an individual living in what is now England during the same period — confirming that the Western Hunter-Gatherer population had extended to the British Isles.
The ancestry picture also raised questions about when Cheddar Man’s population had arrived in Britain. The island of Britain was not continuously occupied during the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. During the glacial maximum, glaciers covered much of Britain and the land was largely uninhabitable. As conditions improved after approximately 20,000 years ago, humans recolonized the island — but there were also interruptions. Studies of the ancient DNA evidence suggest that the Western Hunter-Gatherer ancestors of people like Cheddar Man expanded into Britain, and ultimately the rest of western Europe, from southeastern Europe or further east at some point around 12,000 BCE.