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A man of possible African ancestry buried in Anglo-Scandinavian York — new post by me :) https://www.caitlingreen.org/2019/12/african-viking-york.html
This post discusses burial SK 3379 from the graveyard of the former St Benet's Church at York, which is that of a 'mature adult male' from 10th- to 11th-century York who 'may have been of African or mixed ancestry and may have migrated to York or descended from those that did'.
Burial SK 3379 is, incidentally, one of a number of burials found in well-preserved, late 9th- to early 11th century wooden coffins from the cemetery of the lost church of St Benet’s, York. For more on this site, see https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/new-blog/2019/5/1/burials-at-st-benets & https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/new-blog/2019/6/14/pre-conquest-bodies
With regard to SK 3379, it is worth noting that there are other burials of people with possible African ancestry known from 9th- to 11th-century England, for example a burial of c. AD 1000 excavated at North Elmham, Norfolk, discussed here: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1311/ , pp.224-6.
The 1980 'East Anglian Archaeology' volume on the Late Saxon cemetery at North Elmham, Norfolk, is also now available online — the burial from here is Inh. 5: http://eaareports.org.uk/publication/report9/
Another woman of possible African ancestry, aged 18–24, was reportedly found at Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2013 — her remains have apparently been radiocarbon dated to AD 896–1025: https://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/10688142.fairford-schoolboys-who-found-skull-are-fascinated-to-hear-it-dates-back-1000-years/
Of course, it is worth emphasising that there were people who had at least probably grown up in North Africa in pre-Viking England too e.g. Hadrian, the late 7th-/early 8th-century Abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury, who was 'a man of African race' (Bede) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=egy-k7LV-e4C&lpg=PA170&pg=PA170#v=onepage&q&f=false
Of course, the presence of SK 3377 should perhaps not be too surprising given the extensive & wide-ranging connections of Anglo-Scandinavian York, as witnessed by, e.g., this cowrie shell from the Red Sea & Islamic dirham from Uzbekistan found in York: https://www.mylearning.org/resources/cowrie-shell-and-exotic-coin
Further interesting context come from the various references to Viking activity in 9th-century North Africa, e.g. Al-Bakrī's 11th-century account of a mid-9th-century Viking raid on Nakūr [Nekor, Morocco], from his Book of Roads and Kingdoms: https://www.caitlingreen.org/2015/09/a-great-host-of-captives.html
![Further interesting context come from the various references to Viking activity in 9th-century North Africa, e.g. Al-Bakrī's 11th-century account of a mid-9th-century Viking raid on Nakūr [Nekor, Morocco], from his Book of Roads and Kingdoms: https://www.caitlingreen.org/2015/09/a-great-host-of-captives.html](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EM8plRSWwAAJ2Th.jpg "Further interesting context come from the various references to Viking activity in 9th-century North Africa, e.g. Al-Bakrī's 11th-century account of a mid-9th-century Viking raid on Nakūr [Nekor, Morocco], from his Book of Roads and Kingdoms: https://www.caitlingreen.org/2015/09/a-great-host-of-captives.html")
The 11th-century 'Fragmentary Annals of Ireland' similarly tells of 9th-century Viking raid on Morocco & a 'great host' of captives taken there. These captives were subsequently brought back north and 'remained in Ireland for a long time': https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T100017/
With regard to the city in Morocco that was raided by Vikings in the mid-9th century, this was Madinat en-Nakur — the earliest Muslim city in Morocco, founded in the early 8th century and now the site of a modern dam. Excavations: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.1983.9979875?journalCode=rwar20
Also of some potential interest may be the claim that Vikings attacked Seville in 844, with a number of these Viking raiders subsequently being taken captive, converting to Islam and becoming cheesemakers…! https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ij8jCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q&f=false
Finally, some potential evidence from mice bones for Vikings on the island of Madeira, off the northwest coast of Africa, in 903–1036 cal AD: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2013.3126
Also potentially of interest is Paul Edwards' 'The early African presence in the British Isles' (inaugural lecture 1990), which offers a possible echo of the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland's claim that 'those black men remained in Ireland for a long time': http://www.cas.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/27297/No_026_The_early_African_presence_in_the_British_Isles__Inaug.pdf
Lastly, for the wider context of all of this, see my brief post entitled 'A note on the evidence for African migrants in Bronze Age–Medieval Britain': http://www.caitlingreen.org/2016/05/a-note-on-evidence-for-african-migrants.html
