by Vienna (AP)-as a tree manner renovated a dirt last October to renovate a Viennese soccer field, they appeared on an unprecedented find: a bunch of interconnected skeletal remains in a mass grave that deals with the Roman Roman Roman Roman in the 1st century, probably the corpses of warrior in a struggle that included Germanic tribes.
According to the archaeological analysis, experts from the Vienna Museum gave a first public presentation of the grave after archaeological analysis – in connection with “a catastrophic event in a military context” and prove for the first known fights that have ever been in this region of all time.
The corpses of 129 people were confirmed at the location in the Vienna district of the simmering district. The excavation teams also found many contaminated bones and believe that the total number of victims is 150 – a discovery that has never been seen in Central Europe.
“In the context of Roman war acts, there are no comparable finds of fighters,” said Michaela Binder, who led the archaeological excavation. “There are huge battlefields in Germany where weapons were found. But finding the dead is unique for the entire Roman history.”
Soldiers in the Roman Empire were typically cremated until the 3rd century.
The pit in which the corpses were deposited indicates a hasty or unorganized deposition of corpses. Every skeleton examined showed signs of an injury – especially on the head, upper body and pelvis.
“They have different slaughter wounds that exclude the execution. It is really a battlefield,” said Kristina Adler-Wölfl, head of the Viennese city archaeological department. “There are wounds of swords, lances; wounds made of dull trauma.”
The victims were all male. Most were 20 to 30 years old and generally showed signs of good dental health.
The Carbon 14 analysis contributed to dating the bones to 80 and 130 AD, which were checked against the known history of the relics that were found in the grave armor, helmet protection, the nails used in unmistakable Roman military shoes that are known as caligae.
The most indicative note came from a rusty dagger of a type that was used especially between the middle of the 1st century and the beginning of the second.
Research continues: only one victim was confirmed as a Roman warrior. Archaeologists hope that the DNA and Strontium -Isotopenanalysis will help to further identify the fighters and on the side of which they were located.
“The most likely theory at the moment is that this is related to the Danube campaigns by Emperor Domitian that are 86 to 96 AD,” said Adler-Wölfl.
According to city archecologists, the discovery also reveals the early signs of the foundation of a settlement that would become the Austrian capital of today.
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Associated Press Writer Jamey Kate in Geneva contributed.
