A BBC plaque celebrating the “first black Briton” has been removed because scientific evidence shows she was not African in origin.
The sign honouring the 1,800-year-old remains of “Beachy Head Lady”, a female said to be of African origin, was erected in an East Sussex village as part of the 2016 Black and British series fronted by Prof David Olusoga, the historian.
The Telegraph can reveal that the plaque celebrating what a BBC documentary billed as the earliest “black Briton” has now been removed.
DNA analysis by The Francis Crick Institute has found that Beachy Head Lady’s origins were in “southern Europe – most likely Cyprus”, according to an article by the researcher who first studied her remains.
Parish councillors in the village of East Dean, where archaeologists discovered the remains of Beachy Head Lady, voted to take down the plaque that had been installed at a cricket pavilion.
Plaque
The BBC History project plaque, now understood to be in storage at the cricket club, read: “The remains of Beachy Head Woman were found near this site.
“Of African origin, she lived in East Sussex 2nd-3rd century AD.”
The claim about her origins was made in Prof Olusoga’s documentary series Black and British: A Forgotten History, which told the story of the “enduring relationship between Britain and people whose origins lie in Africa”.
In episode one of the series, Beachy Head Lady was presented as “sub-Saharan African in origin” and the programme featured a reconstruction of her features.
Prof Olusoga remarked that “she’s a black Briton”, as Jo Seaman, an expert archaeologist, explained that her African origins and the age of her remains likely made her the “earliest black Briton”.
As part of the BBC series, plaques were installed to commemorate black Britons throughout history.
An article by Mr Seaman, a Beachy Head expert who carried out initial research into the remains, was updated in 2022 to include the note: “DNA analysis has since concluded that although she grew up in Eastbourne, the place of her ancestry is in southern Europe – most likely Cyprus.”
An online message from the Beachy Head Story, a dedicated visitors’ centre, also stated that: “The place of her ancestry is in southern Europe.”
Following a complaint by a resident of East Dean and Friston Parish in light of the research, the council tabled a motion to have the plaque removed in the autumn of 2022.
Debate over ethnic make-up
There has been recent controversy over the purported ethnic make-up of Britain, and a book titled Brilliant Black British History was recently criticised for its claims about ancient populations.
The children’s book by Nigerian-born British author Atinuke claimed that “every single British person comes from a migrant” but “the very first Britons were black”.
The book, published by Bloomsbury and promoted by Arts Council-funded literacy charity The Book Trust, further claimed that “Britain was a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came, and during that time the most famous British monument was built, Stonehenge”.
Genetic studies have shown that the inhabitants of Britain in the period when Stonehenge was completed, around 2,500BC, were pale-skinned early farmers whose ancestors had spread from Anatolia.
Researchers have said it is difficult to know with certainty what the earlier hunter-gatherer inhabitants of Britain looked like.
They made an entire documentary about her on the basis she was of African origin and it turned out she wasn’t? Lol. Embarrassing.
Please lend me your ears
For this news I shall impart
You may not have been told
We have been here from the start.
We worked in the Stone Age,
Went to war with Bonaparte;
Before these isles were British
Black people played their part.
Cheddar man was Mesolithic
10, 000 years from now,
When the animals were terrific
(You should see his giant cow.)
And the Roman Emperor General
And the brave Aurelian Moors,
Were just a few of several
Who walked upon these shores.
Listen to the tales
And these words I shall impart
Before Harold lost at Hastings
Black people played their part.
Queen Catherine and Henry
Had a trumpeter called John
And a maid call Catalina
But from history books they’re gone!
Of naked Georgian writers
And the stars of boxing rings
To the battlefields of Europe
And the Windrush I can sing
Please lend me your ears
For this news I shall impart
Before Harold lost at Hastings
Black people played their part.
These histories are just stories, there’s truths for us to see
That for 10, 000 British years some Brits have looked like me.
And today the future’s hopeful; Rashford and Stormzy light the way
Evaristo, Blackman, Hamilton, Kaluuya and many more names to say.
Listen to the tales
There are words to fill your heart
You may not have been told
We have been here from the start.
Try to map our journey
You will need a bigger chart
Before these isles were British
Black people played their part.
Whatever happened to the old rhyming headlines you used to get?
Used to enjoy those.
Set-Back for Plaque as Anorak Feedback Highlights Lack of Black
>DNA analysis by The Francis Crick Institute has found that Beachy Head Lady’s origins were in “southern Europe – most likely Cyprus”, according to an article by the researcher who first studied her remains.
Is Cyprus in Europe?
Geographically I would place it in Asia.
Pretty sure the first Africans to settle in the UK (if only for a short time) were Phoenicians from their north African colonies in search of tin, almost a thousand years before this.
Well she was blackish…..sort of off black…..semi detached black
Well she was blackish…..sort of off black…..semi detached black
The Roman empire extended to North Africa, notably Carthage, and you’d expect there would be many people from there amongst the legionaires. They might not have had different genetics from people living on the other side of the Mediterranean, though.
They’re so fucking desperate to create this narrative.
It’s such a weird obsession.
We’re a northern European country with a white history. Can’t they just be content that we have a brown future?
How awful it must have been living before sunblock was invented
I rarely fallow news from BBC, last time I check it appeared to be like an African news channel. Do they really have to make news using Africans only, I mean there are more Indians and other Asians than Africans in UK if diversity is the concern.
I remember my grandmother saying to me:
*I don’t care what they tell you in school. Christopher A. Pissarides was black.*
This thread. It’s like a fucking BNP meeting in here nowadays.
Wonder how she got to the UK from Cyprus in the third century?There’s a story here which will never be told.
It’s an odd and patronising campaign that only wants to claim a black historical presence. Don’t Chinese or Asian people feel the need for a continuous presence since prehistory? There’s also a sleight-of-hand that is used where black and African are used interchangeably, where black as we use it really means of sub-Saharan African ancestry. I wish the people who campaign for this stuff would be honest. It’s genuinely interesting to think about how the black trumpeter, John Blanke got here, although it can’t really be claimed that he made much of a contribution beyond playing the trumpet.
The Nazis claimed that ancient germans were secretly behind every old civilisation,
Some of this stuff is starting to give me the same vibes.
17 comments
A BBC plaque celebrating the “first black Briton” has been removed because scientific evidence shows she was not African in origin.
The sign honouring the 1,800-year-old remains of “Beachy Head Lady”, a female said to be of African origin, was erected in an East Sussex village as part of the 2016 Black and British series fronted by Prof David Olusoga, the historian.
The Telegraph can reveal that the plaque celebrating what a BBC documentary billed as the earliest “black Briton” has now been removed.
DNA analysis by The Francis Crick Institute has found that Beachy Head Lady’s origins were in “southern Europe – most likely Cyprus”, according to an article by the researcher who first studied her remains.
Parish councillors in the village of East Dean, where archaeologists discovered the remains of Beachy Head Lady, voted to take down the plaque that had been installed at a cricket pavilion.
Plaque
The BBC History project plaque, now understood to be in storage at the cricket club, read: “The remains of Beachy Head Woman were found near this site.
“Of African origin, she lived in East Sussex 2nd-3rd century AD.”
The claim about her origins was made in Prof Olusoga’s documentary series Black and British: A Forgotten History, which told the story of the “enduring relationship between Britain and people whose origins lie in Africa”.
In episode one of the series, Beachy Head Lady was presented as “sub-Saharan African in origin” and the programme featured a reconstruction of her features.
Prof Olusoga remarked that “she’s a black Briton”, as Jo Seaman, an expert archaeologist, explained that her African origins and the age of her remains likely made her the “earliest black Briton”.
As part of the BBC series, plaques were installed to commemorate black Britons throughout history.
An article by Mr Seaman, a Beachy Head expert who carried out initial research into the remains, was updated in 2022 to include the note: “DNA analysis has since concluded that although she grew up in Eastbourne, the place of her ancestry is in southern Europe – most likely Cyprus.”
An online message from the Beachy Head Story, a dedicated visitors’ centre, also stated that: “The place of her ancestry is in southern Europe.”
Following a complaint by a resident of East Dean and Friston Parish in light of the research, the council tabled a motion to have the plaque removed in the autumn of 2022.
Debate over ethnic make-up
There has been recent controversy over the purported ethnic make-up of Britain, and a book titled Brilliant Black British History was recently criticised for its claims about ancient populations.
The children’s book by Nigerian-born British author Atinuke claimed that “every single British person comes from a migrant” but “the very first Britons were black”.
The book, published by Bloomsbury and promoted by Arts Council-funded literacy charity The Book Trust, further claimed that “Britain was a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came, and during that time the most famous British monument was built, Stonehenge”.
Genetic studies have shown that the inhabitants of Britain in the period when Stonehenge was completed, around 2,500BC, were pale-skinned early farmers whose ancestors had spread from Anatolia.
Researchers have said it is difficult to know with certainty what the earlier hunter-gatherer inhabitants of Britain looked like.
They made an entire documentary about her on the basis she was of African origin and it turned out she wasn’t? Lol. Embarrassing.
Please lend me your ears
For this news I shall impart
You may not have been told
We have been here from the start.
We worked in the Stone Age,
Went to war with Bonaparte;
Before these isles were British
Black people played their part.
Cheddar man was Mesolithic
10, 000 years from now,
When the animals were terrific
(You should see his giant cow.)
And the Roman Emperor General
And the brave Aurelian Moors,
Were just a few of several
Who walked upon these shores.
Listen to the tales
And these words I shall impart
Before Harold lost at Hastings
Black people played their part.
Queen Catherine and Henry
Had a trumpeter called John
And a maid call Catalina
But from history books they’re gone!
Of naked Georgian writers
And the stars of boxing rings
To the battlefields of Europe
And the Windrush I can sing
Please lend me your ears
For this news I shall impart
Before Harold lost at Hastings
Black people played their part.
These histories are just stories, there’s truths for us to see
That for 10, 000 British years some Brits have looked like me.
And today the future’s hopeful; Rashford and Stormzy light the way
Evaristo, Blackman, Hamilton, Kaluuya and many more names to say.
Listen to the tales
There are words to fill your heart
You may not have been told
We have been here from the start.
Try to map our journey
You will need a bigger chart
Before these isles were British
Black people played their part.
Whatever happened to the old rhyming headlines you used to get?
Used to enjoy those.
Set-Back for Plaque as Anorak Feedback Highlights Lack of Black
>DNA analysis by The Francis Crick Institute has found that Beachy Head Lady’s origins were in “southern Europe – most likely Cyprus”, according to an article by the researcher who first studied her remains.
Is Cyprus in Europe?
Geographically I would place it in Asia.
Pretty sure the first Africans to settle in the UK (if only for a short time) were Phoenicians from their north African colonies in search of tin, almost a thousand years before this.
Well she was blackish…..sort of off black…..semi detached black
Well she was blackish…..sort of off black…..semi detached black
The Roman empire extended to North Africa, notably Carthage, and you’d expect there would be many people from there amongst the legionaires. They might not have had different genetics from people living on the other side of the Mediterranean, though.
They’re so fucking desperate to create this narrative.
It’s such a weird obsession.
We’re a northern European country with a white history. Can’t they just be content that we have a brown future?
How awful it must have been living before sunblock was invented
I rarely fallow news from BBC, last time I check it appeared to be like an African news channel. Do they really have to make news using Africans only, I mean there are more Indians and other Asians than Africans in UK if diversity is the concern.
I remember my grandmother saying to me:
*I don’t care what they tell you in school. Christopher A. Pissarides was black.*
This thread. It’s like a fucking BNP meeting in here nowadays.
Wonder how she got to the UK from Cyprus in the third century?There’s a story here which will never be told.
It’s an odd and patronising campaign that only wants to claim a black historical presence. Don’t Chinese or Asian people feel the need for a continuous presence since prehistory? There’s also a sleight-of-hand that is used where black and African are used interchangeably, where black as we use it really means of sub-Saharan African ancestry. I wish the people who campaign for this stuff would be honest. It’s genuinely interesting to think about how the black trumpeter, John Blanke got here, although it can’t really be claimed that he made much of a contribution beyond playing the trumpet.
The Nazis claimed that ancient germans were secretly behind every old civilisation,
Some of this stuff is starting to give me the same vibes.