Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
After seven years of research and excavation, the archaeologists have ultimately come to a conclusion and on Sunday announced that the 80 skeletons that they have dug out from under the city of York, northern England since 2003 were the remains of gladiators and the place is believed to be the ‘unique’ cemetery of the ancient gladiators around 1,800 years ago.

The announcement was made ahead of the airing of a documentary on the historical site in Britain that is scheduled for June 14.

The York Archaeological Trust said that the dig has found “what may be the world’s only well-preserved Roman gladiator cemetery”. Reports claim that the marks on the skeletal remains proved that the men had died from some violent attacks.

While at the beginning the archaeologists have thought that the skulls might be that of some criminals who have been killed in some feud, they were later on led to think otherwise when found the bite marks on the skeleton remains. Bite and hammer marks on the skulls have led the archaeologists to go for the preliminary theory.

Kurt Hunter-Mann the archaeologist who led the team through the dig said to media sources that it was a “large carnivore bite mark” that led them to this direction. He said that such a mark could have been only inflicted by some animal like a bear, lion or a tiger.

Kurt Hunter-Mann believes that such an injury must have been sustained by the gladiator in “an arena context”.

The dug out of the graves of the Roman gladiators is being counted as a great development towards the ancient Roman history.

Michael Wysocki who had examined the skeletons at the forensic anthropology laboratory of the University of Central Lancashire has said that nothing like the 80 skeletons have been ever identified on Roman skeleton before.