by From Will Dunham
(Reuters) -In Rome’s Colosseum and other amphitheaters in cities that were scattered about the extensive old Roman Empire, not only human and human affairs were gladiatorial spectacles. The gladiators were also displayed against animals.
While there are representations of these competitions in old mosaics and texts, the actual forensic evidence has so far been difficult to grasp. Scientists have found that bite traces on the pool of a man who was buried in a cemetery for gladiators near the English city of York, which was known as an eboracum at the time, was buried by a large cat, probably a lion.
The man, who is at 26 to 35 years old at the time of death, seems to have lived in the 3rd century AD when Eboracum was an important city and a military basis in the north of the Roman province of Britannia. The bite tracks offer evidence of his alleged death in the arena.
“Here we see punctures and Jakken, which indicates that a large building is penetrating through the soft tissues and in the bones,” said forensic anthropologist Tim Thompson from Maynooth University in Ireland, leading author of the study, which was published on Wednesday in the PLOS ONE magazine.
“We do not believe that this was the killing wound because it would be possible to survive this injury, and it is in an unusual place for such a big cat. We believe that it indicates the pulling of an incompetent person,” said Thompson.
The discovery shows how gladiatorial glasses, which were often presented by emperors and other lights, were not limited to wild animals to the big cities of the empire, but were extended into its most distant provinces.
The skeleton of this man represents the first known direct physical evidence of the human-animal fight from the old Roman period, the researchers said.
Wild animals that were used in such glasses included elephants, hippos, rhinos, crocodiles, giraffes, ostriches, bulls, bears, lions, tigers and leopards. For example, archaeologists announced the discovery of the bear and large cats in the Colosseum in 2022.
“Predators – especially large cats, but sometimes other animals, for example bears – were taken up as a fighter against specialist manager, known as the Venatores,” said the co -author of Study, John Pearce, a Roman archaeologist at King’s College London.
Large and aggressive animals were also arrived against each other – for example a bull and a bear – and often chained together, said Pearce. In arenas, too, simulated hunts with people against animals and animals were staged against other animals, said Pearce.
Animals were sometimes used as a substitute for prisoners and criminals – known in Latin as a Damnatio ad Bestiel – in which the victim was bound or defenseless, said Pearce.
A violent death
Pearce described what could happen in York in the last moments of the man. The gladiator may have put on combined protective and theater costume. The animal may have starved to promote wildness.
“From the gladiator’s point of view, an approach like a Matador might have been used very speculatively -to avoid the performance and gradually extend,” said Pearce.
“In this case, which ended unsuccessfully, because in view of the position of the bite brand, it is likely that the lion strolls or drags this person on the ground. In the end, if one or both were dead, there would be a funeral for the gladiator and the use of the animal grain for meat for the spectators,” said Pearce.
Gladiators were usually slaves, prisoners of war, criminals and volunteers.
“For successful gladiators, a popular reputation that is expressed in fan graffiti in Pompeii, probably money and the opportunity to be freed if a successful arena star were incentives and rewards,” said Pearce.
The remains of the York Gladiator show indications of spinal anomalies that may be caused by overloading on the back and tooth diseases. He had been beheaded, probably as a coup of the Grace after an injury and defeat in the arena. He was buried next to two other men, her bodies overlaid with horse bonsens.
There are remains of some buildings and city walls of Eboracum, although no amphitheater has been identified yet.
Two -and -gig -like human skeletons, mostly well -built younger men, were excavated in the cemetery. Many had healed and beheaded injuries in accordance with the gladiatorial fight and beheaded, perhaps as a loser in Arena fights.
“This is a memory of the spectacle culture that is of central importance in Roman public life,” said Pearce.
“This new analysis provides us with very concrete and specific evidence of violent violent encounter, either as a struggle or punishment, and shows that the large cats caught in North Africa were not only in Rome or Italy, but also surprisingly widespread, even if we do not know how often,” said Pearce.
(Reporting according to Will Dunham in Washington; Editor of Daniel Wallis)
