14 DAY TRIAL // For many years, archaeologists and historians believed that the old British city of York was home to only a few minorities, of which most were of African descent, and also slaves. But new analyses would seem to suggest that the researchers had it wrong the first time. Remains found a long time ago were proven to belong to a very wealthy, upper-class African woman, which might have immigrated from her home continent via the Mediterranean Sea. Recently, experts managed to reconstruct her face, and gain a clue as to how she might have looked like, PhysOrg reports.
What the new investigation also proved was the fact that cultural diversity over a given territory was not a modern invention. Britain was apparently experiencing it even in Roman times, but in a manner different from that experts first thought of. They discovered that both men and women of an ethnicity or race other than that of the majority population were allowed to accumulate wealth, and to occupy important positions within the British society, either in the clergy or in the ruling class. It is possible, the investigators say, that many people of African descent were actually part of the upper-classes in the city of York.
The new work was conducted by researchers at the Reading University Department of Archeology, who were led by expert Dr. Hella Eckardt. The investigators used complex forensics techniques on the 4th century CE-artifacts, including forensic ancestry assessment and isotope analysis. Their targets also included the famous remains of the Ivory Bangle Lady, a skeleton that was discovered back in 1901, alongside a treasure trove of expensive artifacts. This suggests that she was a well respected member of the community, as well as someone of considerable wealth and class. She was sealed inside a stone coffin, alongside beads, jewelry, African elephant ivory bracelets, pendants, and a glass mirror.
Eckardt suggests that the new data paint a portrait of a very diverse Britain, around the 4th century of the Common Era. She suggests that society might have even been more culturally diverse than it is now, with many races and ethnicities occupying important positions within the British society and clergy. These conclusions are based on a thorough analysis of the Lady's skeleton, as well as of other remains and artifacts collected from the same region, Details of the investigation appear in the March issue of the respected scientific journal Antiquity.