One of the skeletons unearthed in the Roman-era London cemetery.
Note: An archaeology thread from last week, originally posted on my Twitter account.
As a former archaeologist, I'm not shocked by the discovery of possible burials of people from China in Roman-era London.
The world has always been a vastly interconnected place, with trade & movement of people throughout history & across vast distances.
As stated in the history article above, the cemetery in Roman-era London not only contained people from China but from Africa & around the world.
This suggests that neighborhood of Roman-era London had a very diverse population. And guess what — this London cemetery is not the only archaeological site in the world with such findings.
When I worked as an archaeologist we'd often find artifacts & burials suggesting extensive trade and travel among historic peoples.
Despite this truth, we often paint history as monochromatic, as if only Anglo-Saxons lived in England & Romans were only from Italy & so on.
This distortion of history carries over into our fiction & stories, turning Renaissance Europe into a whites-only affair as only 1 example.
If you write stories set in historic times, don't give current cultural biases free rein in your fiction. Instead, truly research & explore.
And as you write historic stories, know that just like today the past was an extremely interconnected world.
See also