(Above) The skull of the Ivory Bangle Lady found in York. Photo: Gareth Buddo, © Yorkshire Museum
Citizenship and History-related news: forensic tests on a 4th century corpse found in a stone coffin in York more than 100 years ago have revealed North African socialites may have been high-flyers in multi-cultural Roman Britain.
Archaeologists used isotope analysis to scrutinize the skull, facial features and food and drink traces left in the body of The Ivory Bangle Lady, a skeleton discovered in a grave full of exotic bracelets, earrings and jewellery on the city's Sycamore Terrace in 1901.
An ancestral assessment of the remains, carried out by the team from the University of Reading and the Yorkshire Museum, suggested she was of mixed black and white descent and may have moved to York from Mediterranean climes.
This reconstruction speculates how the woman may have looked. © University of Reading
A rectangular openwork mount of bone, reading "Hail, sister, may you live in God", indicates the woman would have had Christian beliefs and a style of burial reserved for notable figures of the time.
"Multi-cultural Britain is not just a phenomenon of more modern times," said Dr Hella Eckardt, Senior Lecturer at the University.
"Analysis of the Ivory Bangle Lady 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.
Found in the grave, this elegant blue glass jug suggests the woman was a VIP in York. Photo: Gareth Buddo, © Yorkshire Museum
"By analysing the facial features of the Ivory Bangle Lady and measuring her skull compared to reference populations, analysing the chemical signature of the food and drink she consumed, as well as evaluating the evidence from the burial site, we are now able to establish a clear profile of her ancestry and social status.
"It helps paint a picture of a Roman York that was hugely diverse and which included among its population, men, women and children of high status from Romanised North Africa and elsewhere in the Mediterranean."
Known as Eboracum, York was a legionary fortress and civilian settlement in Roman times, becoming the capital of Britannia Inferior.
North-African-born Emperors Septimius Severus and Constantius I both paid visits to the city during an era when Britain was part of an Empire including Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in the aftermath of the Roman conquest.
The skeleton and grave goods will be part of a new exhibition, Roman York: Meet the People of the Empire when the Museum reopens in August following a £2 million overhaul.
Hear Dr Eckardt talking about the research here.
An academic paper on the findings will be published in Antiquity this month.
