Archaeological Updates: Skeletal analysis points to animal gladiatorial combat in Roman Britain
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Recent bioarchaeological and osteological analysis of a skeleton evacuated from a Roman Cemetery has revealed evidence of a person being assaulted by a large cat.
Recent bioarchaeological and osteological analysis of a skeleton excavated from a Roman cemetery outside the city of York, United Kingdom, has revealed physical evidence of a person being assaulted by a large cat in the context of Roman gladiatorial combat, a first-of-its-kind discovery in the Roman archaeological record.
Widespread archaeological evidence exists that shows just how popular gladiatorial combat was in Roman times, with the specific spectacle of the “beast hunt” appearing numerous times in Roman texts and art. “In these ‘beast hunts, trained performers (‘venatores’) were armed and placed in an arena to ‘hunt’ large cats (including lions, tigers and leopards), bears, or large herbivores (including elephants and wild boar as well as stags and bulls),” according to PlosOne.
These animals would also be used in these events to execute criminals, prisoners of war, and Christians. Yet, “physical evidence of gladiator combat with wild animals is very rare,” according to Archaeology News. The best example of physical evidence for gladiatorial combat exists at the site of Ephesus, Turkiye, wherein eleven bodies from a gladiator cemetery show physical trauma “consistent with the type of interpersonal combat described or depicted to have taken place within the gladiatorial arena,” according to the authors of the research paper on the recent find in the UK.
The skeleton analyzed by the researchers came from the archaeological site of Driffield Terrace, “Here, we evaluate lesions identified on a skeleton excavated from Driffield Terrace, York, England, a site putatively considered a burial ground for gladiatorial combatants.” Excavated between late 2004 and early 2005, the site revealed “A total of 59 inhumations and 13 cremation burials were recovered from the initial area, and further excavations at another part of Driffield Terrace revealed an additional 23 inhumations and one cremation burial,” according to PlosOne.
According to the researchers, the bodies range from 18 to 45 years in age at the time of death, are overwhelmingly male, and show a “high prevalence of healed or healing ante-mortem [before death] trauma…including healed cranio-facial fractures, fractured teeth, fractured right first metacarpals and vertebrae” that Archaeology Magazine describes as “signifying a violent lifestyle and intense physical training.” The bodies' geographic origins were also found to be widely distributed across the former Roman Empire, each buried from the first to the late fourth centuries CE. All these point to the long-accepted idea that the cemetery was for gladiators.
The skeleton analyzed, named 6DT19, was found well preserved in a “densely used burial space” on the site, it being the body of a male aged 26 to 35 years of age at the time of death, and dates to the third century CE. What made this skeleton significant was the discovery of “bite marks on his pelvis that appear to have been the work of a large cat, such as a lion,” according to Archaeology Magazine.
As explained by forensic anthropologist and lead author of the research paper, Tim Thompson, “Here we can see puncture and scalloping, indicative of large dentition piercing through the soft tissues and into the bone… We don't think that this was the killing wound, as it would be possible to survive this injury, and it is in an unusual location for such a large cat. We think it indicates the dragging of an incapacitated individual.” This is not unheard of in lions and tigers, and, even though they tend to drag prey away by their legs, “significant damage to the pelvis of their prey” has been observed, according to the researchers. Possibly theories express that this notable injury likely took place “as the man was dying or soon after…being the result of scavenging,” as stated by Archaeology News.
Via three-dimensional surface light scanning, the researchers were able to measure the depth and volume of 6DT19’s pelvic bite marks, allowing for a “a more detailed analysis of the shape and positioning of injuries,” according to the researchers.
Researchers stated this discovery is the “first physical evidence for human-animal gladiatorial combat from the Roman period seen anywhere in Europe.” John Pearce, one of the co-authors of the paper, explains that this "new analysis gives us very concrete and specific evidence of a human-animal violent encounter, either as combat or punishment, showing that the big cats caught in North Africa were shown and fought not only in Rome or Italy but also surprisingly widely, even if we don't know how frequently,” showing just how popular such a spectacle as the beast hunt was across the Roman Empire, now further enhanced by bioarchaeological accounts.