First Londoners Were Multi-Ethnic Mix, New Findings Say

First Posted: Nov 24, 2015 04:40 PM EST
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The first residents of London belonged to a 'multi-ethnic mix' almost like modern London today, according to a study at the Museum of London. After analyzing the DNA of four ancient Roman skeletons, which were found in London, researchers believe that there was diversity in the city ages ago.

"We have always understood that Roman London was a culturally diverse place and now science is giving us certainty," Caroline McDonald, senior curator of Roman London at the museum, said in a news release. "People born in Londinium lived alongside people from across the Roman Empire exchanging ideas and cultures, much like the London we know today."

Two of the skeletons belonged people born outside of England. One belonged to a man with Eastern Europe and Near East genealogy and other belonged to a teenage girl with blue eyes from North Africa. The man apparently had suffered an injury to the head, which indicated that he was killed in an amphitheatre and then his head was dumped in a pit. The man and the girl suffered from periodontal disease, which is a type of gum disease.

The other two skeletons belonged to people born in Britain. One skeleton belonged to a woman with northern European maternal ancestry and the other was man who had maternal ancestry to Europe or North Africa. Researchers from the University of Durham in the UK and McMaster University in Canada used the tooth enamel form the skeletons to uncover the ancestry, eye color and the diseases which they suffered from.

"The first multidisciplinary study of the inhabitants of a city anywhere in the Roman Empire," the museum said in a statement. 

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