Why would anyone think Romans had "blue eyes and pale complexions"?
Interesting.
GGG Ping.
Oswald Mosley, please call the office!
Does this mean that Brits and Scots are going to come to the US and demand reparations?
hence THE BLACK WATCH? haha
Everyone want s to claim that they are related to the Scots the reality is that by the time the Moors were running around Scotland had already had a long and wonderful history and it continues today...Let them keep trying to define us...they never will
I happened to be in England recently. Three days ago, I stopped in a pub north of Newcastle (in the vicinity of Hadrian's wall, but on the opposite side of the country from Carlisle.)
The publican was evidently an archaeology enthusiast, because the walls had many interesting maps and illustrations of life in Roman Britain.
One document stated unequivocally that the residents of the area were descended from the Roman legions, and gave examples of local names that might have Roman, Greek, or even Arab origins.
Hardly a word of Latin entered the English language in those days; modern English words of Latin origin mostly came in during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. But it seems clear that the Roman (and perhaps African) blood still flows in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall.
-ccm
Okay, so now that I know where Borders Folks come from, what about Barnes and Noble?
I thought they were talking about the folks who work in the bookstore.
Why would anyone think Romans had "blue eyes and pale complexions"?
Silly racial story. The tribes in Mauretania in the 3rd Century were not black, nor were they Berbers. As far as we can tell at this late date, they were generic Mediterranean peoples, with large dashes of Lebanese, Egyptian, Greek and Roman.
A freed Nubian slave or three was possible, though.
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Guess it is worth checking.
Most, if not all, of such a unit would have been berbers who are relatively light skinned and who have an eye color range that goes from brown to blue and even green. They are not Arabs and they are not southern African blacks.
Everyone knows how wild and clannish the Scots of the 1st century were--and still are some say. The reason the two Roman walls were built across the Island was because the Romans decided it was safer/easier to wall them out than to try and conquer them.
That being said, how likely was it that occupying Roman soldiers would have been allowed to take land and live in peace once the Roman armies dissolved/withdrew? There was never any peace among the clans, so why would they tolerate outside interlopers?
And I don't see any outsider and former foe being inducted into a clan, even if he'd gotten a maiden with child. More likely, he'd have been killed.
"He believes that DNA tests of locals could reveal genetic links with modern-day north Africans, while skeletons of Romans found in the area might contain telltale clues to their childhood origins. "
This is probably true with any unit which can be identified as to place and origin in the roman area...
Facts:
1)Inscriptions refer to the "numerus of Aurelian Moors"
2) The fort could have held up to 500 men
3) archaeologists discovered a 1,900-year-old wooden sculpture of a black African head in London carved in the first century
Conclusion: "Compelling evidence that a 500-strong unit of Moors manned a fort"
This isn't compelling at all. It could just as well have been 20 Moors in a 500 man unit. And the artifact could just as well have been a war trophy carried to Britain by an Italian soldier.
None of this stops the speculation from being reported as fact.