CHINESE BONES IN ROMAN CEMETERY REWRITE HISTORY OF ROMAN BRITAIN

THE history books will have to be rewritten now that 1,900-year-old Chinese skeletons have been unearthed among Roman skeletons at an ancient cemetery in London.

It was an otherwise unremarkable Roman cemetery at the site of ancient Roman Londinium, containing the bodies of ordinary people. They lived and died on the banks of the Thames, making a living in the poorer and dirtier districts of Roman Londinium.

When an analysis of the skeletons came through, no one expected a result that could change our view of the history of Europe and Asia. 

But that is what archaeologists seem to have found, because two of the skeletons, dated to between the 2nd and 4th Century AD, were Chinese.

The findings promise to rewrite the history of the Romans as it suggests these two great empires ... the Chinese Empire and the Roman Empire ... had far greater connections than previously believed.

While it is known that there was extensive trade between China and ancient Rome along what became known as the Silk Road, the two empires are thought to have viewed each other warily.

Accounts from the time suggest the Chinese were curious about the TALL AND VIRTUOUS PEOPLE far to the west, while the Romans found their rivals in the east mysterious but valued their silk cloth.

There is even a village in western China whose residents claim to be descendants of soldiers from a LOST ROMAN LEGION.

Despite the trade between the empires, however, only one person of Asian ancestry has ever been found on sites dating back to the Roman Empire ... an adult man unearthed at Vagnari in Italy.

But now research led by the Museum of London has revealed two more individuals of Asian ancestry, buried among the remains of other citizens of ancient Londinium.

According to the THE TIMES, while experts have not been able to identify their exact origins, it is likely these people had come from China.

Writing in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Dr Rebecca Redfern, an archaeologist at the Museum of London, said how they ended up there is a mystery.

She and her colleagues said: 'The expansion of the Roman Empire across most of western Europe and the Mediterranean, led to the assimilation and movement of many ethnically and geographically diverse communities.