And though the school's receptionist described him as ''a sweetie,'' students are, perhaps inevitably, starting to call Mr. Targett ''Cheddar Man'' and to make subtle grunting noises when he passes them in the hallway.

Meanwhile, the discovery has shone a happy light of fame on this small tourist village, known for its dairy products -- it gave its name to the cheese -- and for the spectacular artifacts unearthed from the catacomb of caves in the Cheddar Gorge.

No one is happier, perhaps, than Bob Smart, who manages the Cheddar Show Caves Museum and is thrilled at the chance to discuss Cheddar Man, famous in human-origin circles for being the oldest complete skeleton ever found in Britain. So important is he that when Chris Stringer, principal researcher in the Human Origins Group at the Natural History Museum, took Cheddar Man's jawbone to a talk show recently, he refused to let it out of his sight, even taking it with him to the bathroom.

''It's all worked out very nicely,'' said Mr. Smart, standing with Mr. Targett in front of a copy of the skeletal Cheddar Man. ''One of the points we have always tried to emphasize is that there's a close relationship between people now and the people living in these caves. They really were just like us.''

Not to three cave-exploring people from Los Angeles, who looked at the skeleton, then at Mr. Targett, and then at the sign explaining their relationship. They pronounced themselves too shocked for coherent thought.

''They don't look anything alike,'' one said, finally.

How alike are they, this mild-mannered historian and the meat-eating hunter-gatherer from the middle Stone Age who lived hard and died young -- and probably violently, judging from the hole in the side of his head?

''Maybe it explains why he likes his steak rare,'' Mr. Targett's wife, Catherine, a substitute teacher at her husband's school, told reporters when the news first broke. But in an interview, she said he was a thoroughly modern man, willing to help around the house and do the dishes.