Beachy Head Woman may be ‘local girl from Eastbourne’, say scientists

Exclusive: DNA advances show Roman-era skeleton, once hailed as first black Briton, came from southern England

Beachy Head Woman, a Roman-era skeleton once hailed as the earliest known black Briton and who scientists later speculated could be of Cypriot descent, has now been shown to have originated from southern England.

The mystery of the skeleton’s shifting identity was finally resolved after advances in DNA sequencing produced a high-quality genetic readout from the remains.