True origin of ‘first black Briton’ revealed

Scientists have shed light on the true origins of the so-called “first black Briton”.

The skeletal remains from Roman times were previously thought to belong to a woman from the sub-Saharan region.

This led to him being called “one of the oldest Africans in Britain”.

But scientists said they could no longer find DNA evidence to suggest it had recently arrived from Africa.

In a paper published online on Wednesday, they detailed that it actually had a strong genetic similarity to individuals from rural Britain.

He likely had blue eyes and light hair, somewhere between pale and dark skin, the scientists added.

Craniofacial reconstruction of the ancient skeleton had previously depicted him as having curly black hair, brown eyes and dark skin.

The skeleton was first unearthed in a box in the basement of Eastbourne Town Hall in East Sussex in 2012.

The only information on the ruins was a label reading ‘Beachy Head (1959)’, earning her the nickname ‘Beachy Head Lady’ after her beauty spot.

Many attempts were subsequently made to determine their geographical origin and ancestry.

The first assessment suggesting its recent sub-Saharan origin was based on analysis of its skull in 2013, scientists said.

“The discovery of the ‘first black Briton we know of’ has received attention in many media outlets, non-fiction books, educational resources and academic publications,” he wrote in the article.

However, scientists added that this interpretation is starting to change.

Other scholars later suggested that the Beachy Head Lady may have grown up around Eastbourne but was born in Cyprus.

“Although these preliminary results were not published in a scientific journal, they were later reported in the media,” the authors of the paper said.

The scientists’ latest discovery is based on “high-quality” DNA data made possible by recent advances in science and technology.

The skeleton was radiocarbon dated between 129 and 311 AD.

The Beachy Head Lady is believed to have been between 18 and 25 years old when she died and was an estimated 1.52m tall.

Scientists said they could not determine the cause of his death.

They showed evidence that fish were a larger component of its diet, consistent with coastal life.

article titled ‘The Beach-Headed Woman: Clarifying her origins using a multifaceted anthropological and biomolecular approach.‘ – Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Written by a team from the Natural History Museum, University College London, Heritage Eastbourne, University of Reading and Liverpool John Moores University.