Roman remains in York are elite African woman

[DAVIDE]

Archaeologists have revealed the remains of what they say was a "high status" woman of African origin who lived in York during Roman times.

This reconstruction shows how the Ivory Bangle Lady may have looked

Academics say the discovery goes against the common assumption that all Africans in Roman Britain were low status male slaves.
Remains of the Ivory Bangle Lady, as she has been named, were studied in Reading using forensic techniques.
She was first discovered in the Bootham area of York in August 1901.
Her remains were in a stone coffin near Sycamore Terrace in the city.
Her grave dates back to the second half of the 4th Century. She was buried with items including jet and elephant ivory bracelets, earrings, beads and a blue glass jug.
She also had a rectangular piece of bone, which is thought to have originally been mounted in a wooden box, which was carved to read, "Hail, sister, may you live in God'.



Bracelets of ivory and jet were among the woman's grave goods



The grave goods and skeletal remains of the Ivory Bangle Lady were studied by the archaeology department of the University of Reading.
The university's Dr Hella Eckardt said a study of the skull's size and facial features along with analysis of the chemical signature of the food and drink she had consumed led to their conclusion that she was of high status and of African origin.
Dr Eckardt said: "Multi-cultural Britain is not just a phenomenon of more modern times.
"Analysis of the 'Ivory Bangle Lady' and others like her, contradicts common popular assumptions about the make up of Roman-British populations as well as the view that African immigrants in Roman Britain were of low status, male and likely to have been slaves."
The Ivory Bangle Lady will feature in an exhibition about the diversity of the population of Roman York at the Yorkshire Museum in August.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/8538888.stm

[MrMofo]

I wonder how much of the facial analysis was influenced by the chemical analysis of her bones, determining her likely diet?

[DAVIDE]

read here http://www.reading.ac.uk/about/newsa.../PR270747.aspx

[Seleucos of Olympia]

Academics say the discovery goes against the common assumption that all Africans in Roman Britain were low status male slaves.

Was there ever such an assumption? I don't remember ever reading about Romans having any particular racial views on Africans, or at least they weren't considered worse than Europeans on the fringes of the Empire. Also, by the 4th century AD (when those remains date from) all people within the Roman Empire had Roman citizenship, including those in North Africa.

Come to think of it, Ptolemy, in his Tetrabiblos, presents a full catalog of racial stereotypes for people living in different areas of the known world, linking them to the effects of planets and constellations. But I remember nothing categorizing Africans as natural slaves - that was a much later concept.

[DAVIDE]

Was there ever such an assumption? I don't remember ever reading about Romans having any particular racial views on Africans, or at least they weren't considered worse than Europeans on the fringes of the Empire.

If you read Sallustius, he didnt say anything good about north Africans, as the Numidians for example, that are labelled as "dirty, stinky and lustful". But it was normal in antiquity. Every Mediterranean group had its stereotypical racist imagery about other people. Without taking in consideration, extreme high ancient Egyptian racism towards negroid, depicted literary as human shite

Come to think of it, Ptolemy, in his Tetrabiblos, presents a full catalog of racial stereotypes for people living in different areas of the known world, linking them to the effects of planets and constellations. But I remember nothing categorizing Africans as natural slaves - that was a much later concept.

Greeks hadnt the same racist imagery of Egyptians. Ptolemies were invaders in Egypt. To see how Egyptians looked like other races, you just have to see their painture


Negro natural slaves in ancient Egypt



"..He hath overthrown the chief of the Nubians, the negro is helpless, defenseless in his grasp. He hath united the boundaries of his two sides, there is not a remnant among the curly-haired who can come attack him. There is not a single survivor among them. The Nubian troglodytes fall by the sword and are thrust aside in their lands. Their foulness, it floods their valley and their mouths like a violent flood, the fragments cut from them are too much for the birds, carrying off the prey to another place."

- Tuthmosis I, Hymn of victory



"I reached Nubia of the negros, … I forced the Nubian chiefs to wash gold"
- stela of Sihathor



"Southern boundary, made in the year 8, under the majesty of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Sesostris III, … in order to prevent that any negro should cross it, by water or by land, with a ship, or any herds of the negros; except a negro who shall come to do trading in Iken, or with a commission. Every good thing shall be done with them but without allowing a ship of the negros to pass by Heh, going down stream, forever"
- stela of Semneh, Sesostris III subjugation of Nubia


"Now after his majesty had slain the Asiatics, he ascended the river…to destroy the Nubian Troglodytes; his majesty made a great slaughter among them.”

- Ahmose



"I have bound together the Nubian Troglodytes by the tens of thousands. The northerners by hundreds of thousands as prisoners"

-Tuthmosis I, hymn of victory



“List of the captivity which his majesty took in the land of Ibbet the wretched.

List of Prisoners and Killed:

Living negros 150 heads
Archers 110 heads
Female negros 250 heads
Servants of the negros 55 heads
Their children 175 heads
Total 740 heads
Hands thereof 312
United with the living heads 1,052 "

- stela of Amenhotep III



Crushing the enemies of Egypt - racial imagery in Tutankhamen's Tomb




ASSUAN INSCRIPTION 49

throne of the living; his father, Re, is his protection, and Amon, lord
of Thebes; ^they smite for him his enemies. Lo, his majesty is in
the palace, (Hbuti) his fame is mighty; the fear of him is in the land,
[his] terror in the lands of the Haunebu; ^the two divisions of Horns
and Set^ are under his charge; the Nine Bows together are beneath
his feet. The Asiatics come to him bearing tribute, and the Nubian
Troglodytes bearing baskets. His southern boimdary is as far as the
Horns of the Earth^ (his) ^northern as far as the ends; ^the marshes of
Asia^ are the dominion of his majesty, the arm of his messenger is not
repulsed among the lands of the Fe[n]khu.

One came to inform^ his majesty as follows: The wretched
Kush ^has begun to rebel, those who were under the dominion of the
Lord of the Two Lands purpose hostility, beginning to smite him.
The inhabitants of Egypt are about to bring away the cattle behind
this ^fortress^ which thy father built in his campaigns, the King of
Upper and Lower Egypt, Okheperkere (Thutmose I), living forever,'
in order to repulse the rebellious barbarians, the Nubian Troglodytes
of Khenthennof er, for those who are Hhere on the north of the wretched


SEMNEH TEMPLE INSCRIPTIONS 71



"Repulse-of-the-Troglodytes,"* which occurs in the fourth month of the
second season, on the twenty-first day, ^a festal offering of the beginning
of the seasons;^ southern grain, 50 heket; southern grain, 202^ heket;
of spelt, I s ; each year at (the feast) " Repulse-of-the-Troglodytes : " royal

linen, 8 [for] "the feast, which occurs in the first of the

third season^ (ninth month) : a bull of the herd; for his father Rhniun,
binder of the (Nine) Bows, smiter of the Shasu: southern grain, 26 heket;

each year for the king's-wife : , ""southern grain, 26 heket; each

year for the great king's-wife, Merseger {Mr-sgr), at (the feast) "Bind-
ing-of-the-Barbarians:''® southern grain, 135 heket; of spelt, 10; each
year for the king, Rhekure (Sesostris III) : .

172. '^His majesty enjoined them upon the chiefs, and governors
of the fortresses of Elephantine of the South, as dues of each year to
abide and to endure: .


THE PUNT RELIEFS


[Kis]sing the earth to Wosretkew^ (Hatshepsut) by

the chiefs of Punt ■ the Nubian Troglodytes of Khenthen-

nofer, every country — of 3 doing obeisance with bowed

head, bearing their tribute to the place where her majesty (fern.) is

^ ways not trodden by others * every country is

dominion of her majesty and counted ^ lord of Thebes, as

tribute each year ^*^which her father Amon fappointedT] for her, **who
hath set all the lands beneath her sandals, living forever.


TUTHMOSIS I HYMN OF VICTORY 263


'Utterance of Amon-Re, lord of Thebes:
Thou comest to me, thou exultest, seeing my beauty,
my son, my avenger, Menkheperre, living forever.
1 shine for love of thee.
My heart 'is glad at thy beautiful comings into my temple;
(My) two hands furnish thy limbs with protection and life.
How pleasing is thy pleasantness toward my body.^
I have established ^thee in my dwelling,
I have worked a marvel for thee;
I have given to thee might and victory against all countries,
I have set thy fame (even) the fear of thee in all lands.
Thy terror as far as the *four pillars of heaven;
I have magnified the dread of thee in all bodies,
I have put the roaring of thy majesty among the Nine Bows.
The chiefs of all countries are gathered in thy grasp,
I myself have stretched out my two hands,
I have bound them for thee.
I have bound together the Nubian Troglodytes by tens of thousands
and thousands,
The Northerners by hundreds of thousands as captives.
I have felled thine enemies beneath thy sandals.
Thou hast smitten the Qiordes^ of rebek according as I commanded
thee.
The earth in its length and breadth. Westerners and Easterners are
subject** to thee,
'Thou tramplest all countries, thy heart glad;
None presents himself^ before thy majesty,
While I am thy leader, so that thou mayest reach them.
Thou hast crossed the water of the Great Bend^ of ^Naharin (iV-A-
r-n) with victory, with might.


etc. etc. etc. you can find here http://www.archive.org/stream/ancien...agoog_djvu.txt

[Seleucos of Olympia]

The Egyptians seem to me equally disdainful of all non-Egyptians they were in contact with... See, for example below, the passage from your last text:

"
I have bound together the Nubian Troglodytes by tens of thousands
and thousands,
The Northerners by hundreds of thousands as captives.
I have felled thine enemies beneath thy sandals.
Thou hast smitten the Qiordes^ of rebek according as I commanded
thee.
The earth in its length and breadth. Westerners and Easterners are
subject** to thee,
"