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

"远离家园-古罗马不列颠的散居社区"（2007 - 2009年：AH/E508758/1）是澳大利亚人权委员会关于"散居、移徙和身份"方案的一部分，通过创新性地结合科学考古技术，探讨古罗马不列颠移民社区的文化和生物经验。该项目揭示了生活在罗马-英国城镇的人们的相当大的多样性，并导致了全国性的新闻报道以及约克郡博物馆的开拓性外联项目。这个后续项目将提高这项研究的价值和影响，并使这些科学发现提供给全国（和潜在的国际）关键阶段2/3的学生和教师的观众。这种公众参与将通过与Runnymede Trust合作创建一个互动网站和一个教学资源契约来实现。AHRC资助的研究项目使用一系列科学技术，在罗马不列颠的埋葬记录中确定了大量移民，特别是在约克和温彻斯特等重要的罗马晚期城镇。骨骼学和法医学祖先评估结合氧和锶同位素分析，以评估地理起源。我们的研究结果表明，大量的抽样个人（高达33%）可以被归类为非本地，与来自英国以外的一个较小的比例。与普遍看法相反，这些移民中有妇女和儿童。研究结果发表在七篇同行评议的期刊论文和一本编辑的书中。我们的工作在BBC的"The One Show"（2009年11月3日）和《泰晤士报》（2010年2月26日）上有专题报道，我们在约克郡博物馆（www.example.com）尝试了外展活动。在完成了学术研究和最初的推广项目之后，很明显，这项工作的结果对英国学校教授罗马时期的方式具有巨大的意义。“罗马人”是关键阶段2（7 - 11岁）小学历史课程的核心部分。目前，可用的教学材料将罗马不列颠描绘成同质的，任何移民基本上都是意大利人，白色和"像我们一样"。这种方法的例子是www.example.com等网站和儿童书籍，如"Usborne Time Traveller：罗马和罗马人"（见所附的视觉证据）。这样的解释没有考虑到金石学的证据（提到外国人的铭文），在许多情况下，这些证据已经被发现了200年，也没有考虑到最近的科学发现。Runnymede Trust之前的工作强烈表明，英国对有关文化多样性的创新教育材料有着强烈的需求。该项目将通过为7 - 14岁儿童创建一个网站以及为教师和社区工作者创建一个教学资源包，来解决罗马世界对流动性和移民的学术看法与当前小学（和中学）教学之间的差距。为了实现这一目标，我们将与英国领先的独立种族平等智库Runnymede Trust（http：//www.runnymedetrust.org/）合作，该机构在设计和推广教育网站方面拥有丰富的经验。该项目将与英国所有小学相关，因为它将使教师，特别是那些与来自不同背景的儿童一起工作的教师，能够描绘罗马世界的形象，这些形象不仅更相关，而且反映了关于该主题的新学术研究。

"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.