ancient roman see iberian as light as wales

Trog covered some good points there, and i'll leave Trog to debate this with the others. However just about the following point:

''We can refer to the Romans and how they described the Silures of Wales as being "swarthy" like the Iberians across the sea from them''
---

This is an unfortunate translation which Afrocentrics have latched to.

It is from Tacitus, Agricola, Chapter XI:

''Namque rutilae Caledoniam habitantium comae, magni artus Germanicam originem adseverant; Silurum colorati vultus, torti plerumque crines et posita contra Hispania Hiberos veteres traiecisse easque sedes occupasse fidem faciunt.''

Here Tacitus describes the Caledonians (Picts) as red haired (rutilae) but the Silures as ''colorati''.

Colorati is a highly ambiguous term, it does not always mean simply dark or swarthy skinned. Note for example how it appears in Ovid:

Amores, I. 14. 16:

''Vele colorati qualia Seres habent''

translation:

''Like the Woven cloth which the red-faced (sunburnt) Seres wear''

Charles Isaac Elton's translation of the Tacitus passage was therefore as follows:

''The red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia point clearly to a German origin. The sunburnt hue (red faces) of the Silures, their usually curly hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former date crossed over and occupied these parts'' - Origins of English History, Charles Isaac Elton, 1890, p. 138.

So the Silures could just have been nothing more than reddish skinned by a slight sunburn, not a dark/olive/swarthy tan.

http://s1.zetaboards.com/anthroscape/topic/3797070/8/