Forwarded by Sister Zawadi Sagna:

"The Archaeology of Black Britain: Approaches, Methods and Possible Solutions"
Case study: North African soldiers at Aballava (Burgh-by-Sands)
Richard Paul Benjamin, Postgraduate Researcher University of Liverpool
Alan M. Greaves, Lecturer University of Liverpool

There is an on-going debate regarding the presence or otherwise of black 
people in Britain in antiquity. The basic problem with this kind of 
research has always been the reliability and availability of source 
materials and the analytical methods by which we study them. The most 
celebrated example of an early black presence in Britain, is the case of 
the Roman military garrison at the fort of Burgh-by-Sands, on Hadrian's 
wall in Cumbria. A fourth century inscription tells us that the Roman 
auxiliary unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum was stationed at Aballava, 
modern day Burgh-by-Sands. This unit had been mustered in the Roman 
province of Mauretania in North Africa, modern Morocco.

It is often forgotten that Rome's African provinces were some of its most 
important and it has been suggested that there may have been a black Roman 
Emperor (Septimus Severus). There are in fact several inscriptions found in 
Britain that mention the Emperor Septimus Severus. It is generally accepted 
that Septimus Severus was born in Numidia, also in North Africa and there 
is the possibility that the unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum was brought 
to Britain around AD 193-211 during his reign.

It was recently suggested that African DNA might be found to be present in 
the local
populations near to Hadrian's Wall, for instance Burgh-by-Sands. However, 
this would not
conclusively show that the black Roman soldiers on the wall intermarried 
with the local
population because of the problem of admixture. Admixture is a process 
whereby the DNA of a population becomes diluted over time and it cannot be 
shown at what period in time that dilution took place.

Sir Walter Bodmer, a leading geneticist, believes that it would be 
exceedingly unlikely that any connection between North African soldiers 
stationed on the Wall could be detected within modern day inhabitants of 
the area. It would be difficult to distinguish between the genetic traits 
of North African Roman soldiers and that of any later influxes of African 
DNA into the local gene pool.

Although the contribution of advances in the study of DNA to other areas of 
archaeological research has been enormous, this has not been the case here. 
Archaeologists are forced, until there can be further excavations at the 
site to recover skeletons of the soldiers or advances in DNA technology as 
a result of the Human Genome Project, to continue relying on the older and 
more "scholarly" pursuit of epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) to answer 
these questions.

The Roman fort at Burgh-by-Sands (ancient Aballava) lay at the western end 
of Hadrian's Wall in Cumbria. The site was occupied from around the second 
to fourth centuries AD. Our evidence for this unit consists of an 
inscription found in 1934 at the village of Beaumont two miles east of 
Burgh-by-Sands on the banks of the River Eden and a passage in the Notita 
Dignitatum, a Roman list of officials and dignitaries.

The Beaumont inscription, which is written in the stylised Latin of a 
standard Roman military inscription, was carved into an altar stone 
dedicated to the god Jupiter (king of the gods). It reads:

"To Jupiter Best and Greatest and the Majesty of our two emperors, to the 
genius (guardian spirit) of the numerus (unit) of Aurelian Moors, 
Valerianus' and Gallienus' own, Caelius Vibianus, cohort-tribune in charge 
of the above-mentioned numerus, [set up this altar] through the agency of 
Julius Rufinus, senior centurion." (See Fig.1)

As the name Aurelianorum suggests the unit was named in honour of the 
Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180). Recently popularised in the film 
Gladiator by Richard Harris. It is unlikely that the unit was formed just 
to be placed in one of the Empire's farthest postings, and they had 
probably already seen active service before their posting to 
Burgh-by-Sands. More than likely the unit will have been blooded in battles 
in Germany (Germania) and the Danube (Dacia), where inscriptions mention a 
unit of Moors involved in these campaigns. The Roman Empire was constantly 
at war during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and therefore many units across 
the Empire will have been destroyed or weakened by battle.

Fig.1
Inscribed altar stone dedicated to Jupiter

Our second piece of evidence is the Notitia Dignitatum, a list of Roman 
dignitaries that includes the passage, " prefect of the numerus of Aurelian 
Moors at Aballava." Together, these two pieces of evidence firmly place a 
unit of Moors on Hadrian's Wall, although the precise date of the 
occupation at the fort of Aballava is unknown. Their exact number is also 
unknown, although a small fort like Aballava could hold upwards of 500 men. 
We do not know where they were stationed before Aballava or where they went 
afterwards, but we do know that they were there.

It is not at all well known that North African Roman soldiers were 
stationed on Hadrian's Wall. Although it is tempting to think of the local 
inhabitants of Burgh-by-Sands as still having genetic traits of those black 
soldiers this cannot be confirmed. Sir Walter Bodmer does not categorically 
dismiss the possibility but he outlines the difficulties that are faced in 
trying to show this.

For us to securely link a unit of North African soldiers with the site at 
Burgh-by-Sands we must still rely on more traditional methods of scholarly 
investigation, in this case epigraphy. The inscription and textual evidence 
available at present brings us to the conclusion that a unit of North 
Africans were stationed at Burgh-by-Sands but we cannot show that that they 
intermarried whilst stationed there. For us to find African artefacts and 
the DNA of African soldiers themselves a full-scale archaeological 
excavation would have to be organised at the site. Only a methodical and 
modern archaeological excavation at the fort has the possibility of 
furthering our knowledge into a fascinating episode of the early black 
presence in British history.

Bibliography

Breeze, D., & Dobson, B., 2000, Hadrian's Wall, Penguin, London.

Frere, S., 1987, Tabula Imperii Romani-Britannia Septentrionalis, Oxford 
University Press, Oxford.

Frere, S., 1995, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain II, Alan Sutton 
Publishing Ltd, Stroud.

Maxfield, V., 1981, The Military Decorations of the Roman Army, 
B.T.Batsford Ltd, London.

Snowden Jr., F., 1970, Blacks in Antiquity, Harvard University Press, 
Cambridge, USA.
Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian & Archaeological 
Society,
Volumes: 1923, 1936, 1939, Titus Wilson & Son, Highgate.

Van Sertima, I., 1990, African Presence in Early Europe, Transaction Books, 
USA.

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