This Museum brings together original flint tools and human remains excavated from the caves in Cheddar Gorge, reproductions of art objects and music from prehistory, video footage and live demonstrations of our ancestors' survival skills, life-size and larger-than-life models, a hunter-gatherer's encampment and the latest thinking, by some of Britain's leading archaeologists and anthropologists, to weave the story of our ancestors' 40,000 year struggle to survive in Britain through successive Ice Ages.

Our species, Homo sapiens (thinking person), like our upright predecessors Homo erectus, originated in Africa around 200,000 BP and gradually spread across Eurasia. Mammoth bones and two spear heads dated to 40,000 BP chart the arrival of our ancestors in Britain. A 1,000 year occupation of the Cheddar Caves during the Late Upper Palaeolithic (end of the Old Stone Age) coincided with the "flowering" of European cave art, before the last Ice Age, 12,000 BP, drove our ancestors back to mainland Europe.

The butchered remains of 3 adult humans and 2 children from this period, scattered around Gough's Cave, provide a unique insight into cannibalism in Britain. This, it is argued, was a norm of behaviour for our species everywhere until farming became widespread. Then there is "Cheddar Man" from 9,000 BP – Britain's oldest complete skeleton, whose DNA tests prove that he is related to a teacher still living in Cheddar. Was this outcast Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) hunter-gatherer "buried" in the "twilight" zone of a cave to prevent his spirit travelling to the After-life?

Children thoroughly enjoy the "hands-on" cave painting and talking to our hunter-gatherer re-enactors (most days in the Summer months), who demonstrate flint-knapping and fire-lighting. Parental (or teacher) guidance is recommended for children, because of the adult nature of some exhibits.

BP means "Before Present". Please see Why use BP?

Please see Safety & Accessibility Please see Duration of Visit