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Ivory Bangle Lady strikes blow to BNP

by Paul Conneally | February 27, 2010 at 04:27 am

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The ultra right wing British National Party (BNP) has been shown up again for it's anti-multicultural Britain stance by new research showing that Britain was in fact a multicultural society in Roman times.

The research shows that Africans formed part of Roman York's society at the highest levels and were not just present as immigrants of low status or slaves.

Archaeologists have found a lavish grave in York belonged to a member of York's high society who came from North Africa. The body in the grave was a woman's who has been called the 'Ivory Bangle Lady' due to the distinctive bangle found on her.

This was in the 4th century and makes disputes any claim by right wing nationalist parties, such as the BNP, that multiculturalism is a threat to the UK. Evidence like this reinforces arguments that UK culture as we know it today is actually built on multiculturalism.

Setting aside any political messages for today from the past the discovery of the 'Ivory Bangle Lady' and subsequent research is fascinating and will form part of an exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum in August called Roman York: Meet the People of the Empire.

Hella Eckardt, who carried out the study, said: “Multicultural Britain is not just a phenomenon of more modern times. Analysis of the ‘Ivory Bangle Lady’ and others like her, contradicts assumptions about the make-up of Roman-British populations as well as the view that African immigrants were of low status, male and likely to have been slaves.”

"We're looking at a population mix which is much closer to contemporary Britain than previous historians had suspected," Hella Eckhardt, senior lecturer at the department of archaeology at Reading University, said. "In the case of York, the Roman population may have had more diverse origins than the city has now."

Startling new forensic research has revealed that multicultural Britain is nothing new after discovering black Africans were living in high society in Roman York.

A study of various remains and artefacts from the 4th century at the Yorkshire Museum shows North Africans were living there thousands of years ago.

The most exciting results came from analysis of the so-called 'Ivory Bangle Lady' whose remains were found in 1901 on the city's Sycamore Terrace.

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YankeeJim

at 06:05 on February 27th, 2010

When I see productions of Shakespeare in which African Americans are cast in featured parts, I don't question the authenticity, surely all races must have been represented there at a place and time as they are today.

Excellent post and topic.

stejeb

at 08:11 on February 27th, 2010

I agree Jim. The Romans brought a lot of innovations with them, if multi culturalism is another of them it adds weight to the argument many put forward against the BNP's stance, in that their propaganda with regard to "indigenous people" of Britain is just racist tosh, because there aren't any truly indigenous people left.