I am referring to this article.
Quote:
Families who have lived in the English-Scottish Borders for generations could be descended from African soldiers who patrolled Hadrian's Wall nearly 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists say there is compelling evidence that a 500-strong unit of Moors manned a fort near Carlisle in the third century AD.
How serious is this claim taken in the academic community? Is it possible to track African DNA from "white" Brits if it was introduced so long ago?
Also: How likely is it that a Roman military unit drafted in modern Morocco was "black", opposed to being "white" Phoenicians who probably (?) did not look so different from Italians/ Greeks?
It's a credible claim, the Romans used to (re)deploy units all over the empire at times, regardless of their place of conscription.
North Africa was a rich recruiting ground for Roman auxiliaries and later legionaries as well. There's no question that North-Africans were in the Roman military.
Once the borders of the empire stabilised in the mid-1st century, most legions were based in particular provinces long-term. The number of Italian-born recruits dwindled. According to one survey, c. 65% were Italian-born in the early Julio-Claudian period (to AD 41), 49% in the period 42-68, 21% in the Flavian era (69-96) and around 8% under Hadrian.
The third century AD would be around the time of Septimius Severus, who was himself born in Leptis Magna, in modern day Libya.
Two thousand years ago is not very long ago at all, genetically speaking. There is no such thing as "African DNA", there is a split between sub-Saharan genetic variety and the rest though.
The chances of finding North-African genetic markers going back to Roman times in modern day Brits is something beyond my knowledge, and probably a question better suited for a genetics sub-reddit.
Troops from Numidia would probably have been Berbers largely, the terms "black" or "white" don't really apply. They were /are not sub-Saharan Africans, nor Caucasian. Phoenicians are about five-hundred years earlier, and although Carthage is thought to have started as a Phoenician settlement, Phoenicians are assumed to have originally come from modern-day Lebanon / Syria, a Semitic group quite distinct from the Greeks and Romans.
Sub-Saharan Africans were usually described as "Aethyopian" by both the Greeks and the Romans, and were clearly seen as distinct from North Africans.
A lot of mixing happened around the Mediterranean basin over thousands of years though, the divides between the various groups are not all that clear-cut.
Sources/more:
"De Re Militari" by Vegetius.
"The High Empire", Cambridge Ancient History volume XI
"Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience" by Frank M. Snowden Jr.