There are legionaries and auxiliaries from the Adriatic, from Spain, from the Belgic tribes, from across Gaul, and a surprisingly large number of Palmyrians. Although one of the "Palmyrian" women, her name shows, had been a British slave girl from the St Albans area, who presumably "married up". Her tombstone shows her dressed as a perfect Palmyrian lady, but the Latin on it is a mess. The Palmyrian script (a form of Aramaeic) below, however, is perfect, suggesting a serious-sized community as it could support a stone mason.
So if you were in the town of Corbridge, Northumbria, today as "Little England" as you could imagine, in say 200AD, our guide Sam Moorhead suggested, you could have expected to hear half a dozen languages, and seen people from all parts of the Roman world, from "Ethiopians" (the Roman word for dark-skinned Africans), to Syrians, to people from what is now Russia. But virtually all of them would have thought of themselves as, or have been striving to have themselves thought of, as Romans.
The mixing started with those Neolithic farmers and has been going on ever since: you've got after that Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Normans, various refugees from the religious wars of the continent of the second millennium, then the age of European exploration starts, and you've got people arriving from all over the globe ...
So much for those who like to suggest there's anything solid or meaningful about the concept of race.
* While researching this I found a blog of the Boxgrove site, which dates back about half a million years, detailing recent work there.
Read more like this on my home blog, Philobiblon.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Victor Lana
This article is right on, Natalie. Race means absolutely nothing; it's just a shame so many people make it out that way.
Dr. King said something about wanting to live in a country where his children were judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Man, if we only could all live that way. We'd be beyond wars, terrorism, and hatred.
John Lennon in "Imagine" asked us to "Imagine no countries" and "no religion too." I guess we have a long way to go, but we can't lose faith (no pun intended) in the human race.
2 - Dave Nalle
We're all the same color once we've been flayed.
Dave
3 - Nancy
Race doesn't mean squat ... but culture sure does. When I think about it, I think what "offends" in the case of racism is not race - that's just the obvious excuse, physical difference - but the culture. I come from a very conservative, buttoned-down New England area. Black families w/"typical" middle-class cultural values (i.e. they mowed the lawns on weekends, had BBQs, their kids were in the Scouts, etc.) were welcomed & socialized freely w/everyone else. But when a family of free-wheeling (& noisy) Southerners moved in, with their much more ... uh, exhuberant ... lifestyle, all hell broke loose with everyone black & white. The Bs & Ws all had the same 'culture' of behavior (keep the noise down, no drag racing on the streets, don't dismantle your car in the yard, don't sit on your front porch drinking & whooping it up), and the newcomers' was pretty much diametrically the opposite, so that was the cause of the friction.
4 - Bennett
Very interesting piece Ms Davis. We are the Human Race, and I hate it when people use the word "race" when "ethnicity" (different ethnic background) is actually what they mean.
We are all one race.
5 - Nancy
The fact that we can all interbreed says that much. And I like to believe the "Eve" theory, that we ALL came out of Africa, if you go back far enough. Nice to know we're all descended from the same troop of chimps, LOL!
6 - Dave Nalle
Hell, the current thinking is that even Cro Magnons and Neanderthal interbred to produce Homo Sapiens. Which explains my bizarre physical resemblance to a Neanderthal.
Dave
7 - JR
Actually, Jean Auel notwithstanding, I believe the current thinking is that the Cro Magnons wiped out the Neanderthals. Possibly by out-competing for resources, possibly by genocide.
8 - Natalie Bennett
You're right JR - see for example here. This mitochondrial DNA work is still at the cutting edge, however, so who knows, it might be overturned.
And it only shows we today have no Neanderthal DNA, not that there was never any mixing; so Auel could be right about the events, if wrong about the mystical bits.
Sorry Dave, you'll have to find another explanation .... :-)
9 - Victor Lana
Bennett is right, we are ALL one race: human beings. I hate to go off on a tangent, but I think the only way everyone on this planet ever pulls together is if we realize this fact.
I know INDEPENDENCE DAY was only a movie, but as I was watching it the other night, I was thinking the WHOLE world comes together in that film to fight a common enemy. When it is US against THEM (those insectoids or whatever the hell they are) then we will know we are all the same (no matter what color, faith, or gender).
Unfortunately, we might not be able to defeat them as easily as in the film and our unity would be too late.
10 - JoJo
Should we do away with minority scholarships?
A bassett hound and a poodle can breed and have fertile offspring but are of different breeds.
You can change the name from race to ethnicity, subspecies, breeds, morphs, localities but genetic variation is real.
I grew up watching 'The Electric Company' too- but come on.
11 - Victor Plenty
Genetic variation is real, but skin color is among the least important results of genetic variation. It certainly does not predict any of the truly important personal qualities such as intelligence, trustworthiness, or courage. Hence the concept of different "races" within the human family is worse than useless.
12 - Natalie Bennett
"Most functional human genetic variation is not population-specific
* The majority of the 1.58 million SNPs with high-quality genotypes were common in all three populations; and
* “Private SNPs” " those SNPs segregating in only one population sample " were only 18% of the total."
The full scientific paper is here
And as for the scholarship question; just because there is no difference between people, doesn't mean there are not cultural difference in the way they are treated, which might need to be ameliorated.
13 - JoJo
Any decent coroner can tell the difference between a black person's corpse and a white person's corpse even if the skin is removed.
Did you find Al Jolson believable as a black man? If a white person and a black person were painted green i would still be able to see the differences.
There is more than color involved. We should embrace our differences and not deny them.
14 - WTF
I have a REALLY hairy body, a bald head, and an extreamly prolific beard, therefore, I am.
15 - JoJo
Sorry dude, wrong website. This isn't the gay bear chat room.
16 - Bennett
Any decent coroner can tell the difference between people of Irish, Native American, and Chinese heritage.
So what? These structural differences are simply an expression of the richness of the human genetic pool.
As Victor stated so eloquently "Genetic variation is real, but skin color is among the least important results of genetic variation."
We will, as time passes, become a uniformly light brown race of humans with a variety facial characteristics.
The sooner, the better, imo. It has nothing to do with being able to "embrace our differences" and everything to do with eliminating a reason to continue to teach color prejudice, and (for some) to feel superior to others based on their skin color.
17 - JoJo
"We will, as time passes, become a uniformly light brown race of humans with a variety facial characteristics."
So you are saying that in the future there will be one race. Agreed.
I enjoy diversity personally.
Also this 'race' will not be a race because there will no longer be any other variations to define it as such.
18 - Victor Lana
Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Halle Berry, Derek Jeter, Vin Diesel, Christina Aguilera, Tiger Woods, and the list can go on...
What do they have in common? They are what is called "biracial" and VERY successful. I believe whole heartedly that is where we are headed: a blending of all "colors."
That is (I believe) what the Creator intended. If we are indeed made in his "image" then none of us: NONE of us is excluded. We are all of one race, and someday in the future we will blend accordingly.
Remember the Tower of Babel? Maybe discounted now, but the Biblical story suggested we all spoke one language. I think we all had one mother and father too. It just makes sense.
People who dwell on differences want to divide us (US meaning the human race). We need to remember our similarities, our unique but shared humanity.
We are one.
Don't let anyone try to divide us. In that divisive rhetoric is nothing but destruction> That's why the world is so messed up.
We are all the same: Iraqi, American, Jew, Syrian, Chinese, etc. We need to reach that symbiotic plain where we can all be brothers and sisters. If not, our race (THE HUMAN RACE) is doomed.
19 - Temple Stark
Skin color clearly DOES mean something. The question is will it or should it?
THe post was an excellent take on the whole matter tho.
===
Da, it's not just "physical"
--- sorry you provide the humorless line ... etc.
20 - Bennett
Right on JoJo AND Victor Lana.
I love diversity, the beauty that I see in folks from different ethnic backgrounds. I grew up in Oakland, but fortune and fate brought me to Vermont where there is less opportunity to experience the cool interaction of cultures.
So I go to Montreal and just about OD on talking with shopkeepers and such. Much fun, makes me miss Oakland. One fantastic difference is the blending of French genetics with folks of other ethnicities... Absolutely beautiful.
21 - JoJo
Bennett- How can you embrace diversity when you look forward to the day when there is only one race?
And do you realize that you are contradicting yourself with a post entitled:
What does race mean? Nothing
22 - JoJo
"That is (I believe) what the Creator intended."
So much for science.
23 - Bennett
JoJo,
Just because I see the evils that come from color based prejudice doesn't mean I don't enjoy interacting with people of all ethnic backgrounds.
It would be better for the human race if we were one skin color. But we aren't, and we have tens of thousands of years of blending before we get there.
In the meantime, I'll enjoy the sights and sounds of what IS reality.
No contradiction there.
24 - Temple Stark
I don't believe it would be a great thing if we were all one color. It would be one less opportunity to learn about humankind.
Now a world without violence ...
25 - Natalie Bennett
But why is the focus on colour? As the science site I pointed to above indicates, it is a very imprecise pointer to other characteristics. Why not divide us up instead by height, or eye colour, or speed at which we can run, or relative length of fingers and toes?