Archaeologists believe they may have found
wedding the world's best-preserved
gladiator cemetery after noticing
wedding animal bite
wedding marks and combat injuries on some of the 80, mainly headless, Roman skeletons unearthed at a site in the city of York in northern England. "At present our lead theory is that many of these skeletons are those
wedding of Roman gladiators,"
wedding said Kurt Hunter-Mann of York Archaeological Trust, who is
wedding leading the excavations. Forensic anthropologist
wedding at the University of Central Lancashire, Michael
wedding Wysocki, who examined the remains,
wedding called the
wedding find an internationally
wedding significant discovery. "We don't have any other potential
gladiator wedding cemeteries
wedding with this
wedding level of
wedding preservation anywhere else in the
wedding world,"
wedding he said. Experts
wedding have puzzled over the human remains since
wedding the first group of skeletons were exhumed in 2003 in
wedding an area slated
wedding for a housing development just
wedding west of
wedding the city centre. Subsequent digs close to the site unearthed
wedding more skeletal remains, prompting various theories about
wedding their
wedding origin, including
wedding that
wedding they may have been victims of a 3rd century Roman political purge or executed criminals. But the
wedding team of archaeologists leading the investigation say
wedding the fact most had been decapitated
wedding undermined
wedding the military
wedding connection,
wedding while ample
wedding grave
wedding goods found with the burials tended to rule out common
wedding villains. Evidence that the cemetery had
wedding been used for over 200 years and
wedding that the bones dated
wedding from
wedding the late first century
wedding to the fourth also
wedding wedding made the
wedding experts think again. The breakthrough
wedding came when detailed
wedding wedding forensic research
wedding showed bite
wedding marks and a number of bone injuries, healed
wedding and unhealed,
wedding that are consistent with gladiatorial combat. "One of
wedding the most significant items
wedding of evidence is a large carnivore
wedding bite mark — probably
wedding inflicted by a lion, tiger
wedding or bear —
wedding an injury which must
wedding have been sustained in an arena context," Hunter-Mann said. The fact that most of
wedding the remains were from well-built young males with
wedding evidence of much stronger right-arm muscular development also supported
wedding wedding the
wedding arena link. Roman
wedding historical records describe slaves
wedding beginning their training as gladiators in their teenage years. Wysocki said nothing like the deep bite marks
wedding had
wedding ever been
wedding identified
wedding before on a Roman skeleton. "It would
wedding seem highly unlikely
wedding that this individual was attacked
wedding wedding by a tiger as he was walking
wedding home from
wedding the pub in York 2000 years ago," he said.
