A African community in Roman Britain?

[Heraclitus]

Britain had North African ethnic presences long before the Roman showed up- particularly Phoenicians. "Hannibal" was a fairly common name in Cornwall.

This thread was primarily about SubSaharan African presence in Britain.

Thought this reminds me of a hilariously historically inaccurate picture I once saw, in it Hannibal was referred to as a "African King" :



Black History month fail. First off because he wasn't a "King" secondly because he was part of the Carthaginian upper class mostly descended from Phoenician colonists, the only possible Black admixture being from Numidians. But we are about nearly as certain from him as we are certain for Charlemagne that he did not have West African features since we have depictions of him preserved.



I find it hilarious that people like him, Cleopatra and even Socrates are routinely presented as Black with West African features until proven otherwise.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

But we are about nearly as certain from him as we are certain for Charlemagne that he did not have West African features since we have depictions of him preserved.

Exercise caution with that theory- stylisation was common in classical sculpture and most sculptors/artists probably never saw the dignitaries they were depicting.

[RGBVideo]

What's funny in these ancient history -discussions is how everyone is always expecting the people who populate areas today be the same people who populated the same areas over 2000 years ago. This is also where funny theories like "Jesus was an Arab" or "Cleopatra could've been black" originate.

North Africa was a much more environmentally hospitable place around 200 BC than it is now (read: favourable to farming, capable of supporting large cities even without modern transportation or refrigeration), and based on Roman accounts Carthaginian culture was a mix of Greek / Near East culture, so if we could see ancient pictures of Carthaginian nobles the same way we can see ancient pictures of Roman nobles from Pompeii, I doubt they'd look anything like the berber tribes that are populating Tunisia now. That would be like presuming people who lived in Massilia 200 BC were the same people who populate Marseilles today.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

What's funny in these ancient history -discussions is how everyone is always expecting the people who populate areas today be the same people who populated the same areas over 2000 years ago.

Stretch that 2000 years to 9000 years, then read this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_Man

[Cort Haus]

Stretch that 2000 years to 9000 years, then read this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_Man

Wow. People don't get about much down there.

[Al B. Sure!]

There was talk of a major motion picture about Hannibal recently that died down and I don't think the producers got the funding they needed... the actors being considered for the role were Denzel Washington and Vin Diesel.

Denzel is retarded but the Afro-Italian Vin Diesel would've been cool.

Often they go best with multiracial ethnically ambiguous people for roles like this. Yul Brenner as Pharaoh, The Rock as the Scorpion King, etc.

[Heresson]

Exercise caution with that theory- stylisation was common in classical sculpture and most sculptors/artists probably never saw the dignitaries they were depicting.

I don't think it's true. Greek portrayal was often idealistic, but roman art, as far as I know, tended to portray people as they were, with all their wrinkles, deformities, funny noses etc.

That's what they taught me in primary school plastics lessons.

[Al B. Sure!]

I don't think it's true. Greek portrayal was often idealistic, but roman art, as far as I know, tended to portray people as they were, with all their wrinkles, deformities, funny noses etc.

That's what they taught me in primary school plastics lessons.

That's what I've read as well.

The only thing is he does have a valid point with regards to when the sculptures were made; centuries after Hannibal lived. So who knows about the accuracy then.

However, it's pretty clear Hannibal was more Lebanese or Tunisian than Wesley Snipes. A lot of Afro-centrists want to refute that for some retarded reason.