Parisii (Yorkshire)
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The Romano-British Parisii tribe of East Yorkshire and Humberside in Britain is traditionally seen as being comprised of emigrants from the tribe of the same name based in Gaul. The burial processes of the Gaulish and British tribes differ slightly but the Iron Age Arras Culture which settled around East Yorkshire in the early La Tène period shows distinctive continental influence. Barry Cunliffe states that the Arras Culture, which is associated with the Parisii, demonstrates economic and social continuity from the 5th century BC onwards, however, and the view that the East Yorkshire Parisii were a colony of the Gaulish Parisii may be a simplistic one.
With the Suessiones, the Gallic Parisii participated in the general rising of Vercingetorix against Julius Caesar in 52 B.C. Following their defeat by Caesar in 52 BC, some may at this time have fled to Britain although it is more likely that Parisii had already colonised part of the island before this time and preceding the waves of Belgic immigration.
Burials involving placing the deceased in a wheeled vehicle beneath square barrows, as found in both the Marne region of France and in the British Parisii homeland, was considered proof of a genetic link. An alternative explanation to a folk movement however is that the British Arras culture was an attempt by some of the native Britons to ape continental society. It may be that the upper echelons of British society were trying to distinguish themselves by copying foreign ways. The vehicle burial aspect of the culture developed in Britain in the third and second centuries BC which suggests that it was adopted independently and prior to the historic defeat of Vercingetorix. Alternatively the practice may have been forgotten and then re-introduced by an immigrant group.
Either way, it is clear from the archaeological record that the two Parisii groups had a close affinity.
Barry Cunliffe in Iron Age Communities in Britain (1974) p. 45, distinguishes the Parisii as those in the Nanterre-Paris region, and the Parisi as those who moved to Britain, based on Ptolemy's descriptions.
