by The skeleton of a Roman gladiator presented the first physical evidence of the struggle between a person and a large cat, said archaeologists.
The skeleton, probably a man between the ages of 26 and 35, shows bite tracks on the pool of a large cat that could have been a lion, said archaeologists in a new study published in the magazine Plos one.
The remains were discovered on the Driffield Terrace Cemetery outside the city of York, Great Britain. It was one of over 80 skeletons that were excavated there in 2004.
The burials at the location on the early second century were located to the late fourth century AD, which means that the man was buried 1.825 and 1.725 years ago.
A forensic examination of the skeleton found “unusual” deep holes and bite traces on the pool in what the study described as “extremely exciting find”.
“We believe that this is the first example that has been identified in such remains,” said Prof. Tim Thompson, the main author of the new study at Maynooth University in Ireland.
He said archaeologists only found a few confirmed gladiator residues in regions that once formed the Roman Empire.
“For years, our understanding of the Roman Gladiatorial fight and animal glasses has been based strongly on historical texts and artistic representations,” said the professor of anthropology. “This discovery provides the first direct, physical evidence that such events have taken place at this time, which redesigned our perception of Roman entertainment culture in the region.”
The researchers used 3D scan to examine the wounds on the cleared gladiator’s remains. What fascinated her was the unusual circular markings along his hip bones.
They scanned the markings and compared them with those who left zoo animals gnawing on bones. They found that Marks of cheetahs, lions, tigers and leopards corresponded exactly to those in the man’s skeleton.
They came to the conclusion that the injuries occurred at the time of death and caused by the large cat that dragged the man along the floor.
“We could see that the bites happened approximately at the time of death,” said Prof. Thompson. “So that was not an animal that had died after the death of the individual. It was associated with his death.”
He said the pelvis was not a part of the body that a lion would normally attack, which indicates that the gladiator had fought and acts before the lion bite it and pulled it out of his hip.
The skeleton was discovered in a grave with two other human remains and overlaid with a horse’s bones. An earlier analysis of the bones indicated that it was that of a bestimous one, a gladiator that was sent to a spectacle struggle with animals.
Malin Holst, a lecturer for osteoarcheology at the University of York, said she had never seen anything like that in her 30 years of analyzing skeletons.
“The bite tracks were probably made by a lion, which confirmed that the skeletons buried in the cemetery were more gladiators than soldiers or slaves, as they initially thought and the first osteological confirmation of human interaction with great meat in a struggle or an entertainment environment in a explanation in the Roman world.
An additional analysis of the remains showed that the man on spine and shoulder injuries had to overload his back. He also had signs of inflammation in his lungs and thighs and his bones showed that he had recovered from the malnutrition of childhood.
“This is an extremely exciting find because we can now start building a better picture of how these gladiators were in life, and it also confirms the existence of great cats and possibly other exotic animals in arenas in cities such as York and how they also had to defend themselves against the threat of death,” said Ms. Holst.
“We often have a mental picture of these struggles that appear in the area of the colossis in Rome, but these latest findings show that these sporting events went far beyond the center of the Roman core areas. An amphitheater probably existed in Roman York, but this has not yet been discovered.”
