Foreigners and locals in Roman Britain: painting a more complex picture for school children

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"A long way from home - diaspora communities in Roman Britain" (2007-2009: AH/E508758/1) was part of the AHRC programme on "Diasporas, migration and Identities" and explored the cultural and biological experience of immigrant communities in Roman Britain through an innovative combination of scientific archaeological techniques. The project revealed the considerable diversity of people living in Romano-British towns and resulted in national news coverage as well as a pioneering outreach project at the Yorkshire Museum. This follow-on project will enhance the value and impact of this research, and make these scientific findings available to a nationwide (and potentially international) audience of Key Stage 2/3 learners and teachers. This public engagement will be achieved through the creation of an interactive website and a teaching resource pact, in collaboration with the Runnymede Trust. Using a range of scientific techniques, the AHRC-funded research project identified significant numbers of migrants in the burial record of Roman Britain, in particular at the important late Roman towns of York and Winchester. Osteological and forensic ancestry assessment was combined with oxygen & strontium isotope analysis to assess geographic origins. Our results show that a significant number of individuals sampled (up to 33%) can be classed as non-local, with a smaller proportion coming from outside the UK. Contrary to popular perceptions, there are women and children amongst these migrants. Results were published in seven peer-reviewed journal papers and an edited volume. Our work was featured on the BBC 'The One Show' (3rd Nov 2009) and in The Times (26 February 2010) and we trialled outreach activities at the Yorkshire Museum (www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk). Having completed both the academic research and the initial outreach project, it has become apparent that the results of this work are of enormous significance to the way in which the Roman period is taught in British Schools. 'The Romans' are a central part of the primary school history curriculum in Key Stage 2 (ages 7 -11). Currently, the available teaching materials portray Roman Britain as homogenous, and any immigrants essentially as Italian, white and 'like us'. This kind of approach is exemplified by websites such as http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/romans/ and children's books such as the 'Usborne Time Traveller: Rome and the Romans' (see visual evidence attached). Such depictions fail to take into account both the epigraphic evidence (inscriptions mentioning foreigners) which in many cases has been known for two hundred years and more recent scientific findings. Previous work by the Runnymede Trust strongly suggests that there is a strong demand for innovative educational materials about cultural diversity in the UK.This project will address the gap between academic perceptions of mobility and migration in the Roman world and current primary (and secondary) school teaching by creating a website for children aged 7-14 and a teaching resource pack for teachers and community workers. To achieve this we will work with the Runnymede Trust, the UK's leading independent race equality think tank (http://www.runnymedetrust.org/), which has extensive previous experience of designing and promoting educational websites. This project will be of relevance to all primary schools in Britain as it will enable teachers, especially those working with children from diverse backgrounds, to portray images of the Roman world that are not only more relevant but reflect new academic research on the topic.