Thaindian News

Scientists announced on Sunday that they have found the world’s best preserved cemetery of the Roman gladiators. After seven years of investigations, the scientists found the ultimate resting place of the gladiators, who fought with the wild beasts and also with each other before dying with a hammer blow to the skull.

All the heads were cut off; there were signs of bites of a lion, tiger or a bear, huge muscles of massive men, all these suggested it to be the cemetery of the Roman gladiators.

Since 2003, the archeologists have discovered 80 skeletons in this unique cemetery in the city of York, northern England.

The announcement of the discoveries came just few days before a documentary about the site is due to be aired in Britain on June 14.

This Roman gladiator cemetery is one of the two big archaeological developments. The first one was by the Israeli scientists, who announced the discovery of a huge collection of ancient religious objects.

At first, the archeologists suspected that the burial ground might have the remnants of criminals or political purges.

But the teeth mark found there, made them think otherwise. Kurt Hunter-Mann, the lead archeologist in the mission said, “The large carnivore bite mark is one of the most important items of evidence, which was probably imposed by a lion or tiger.”

Michael Wysocki, who studied the remnants in the forensic anthropology laboratory at the University of Central Lancashire, said, “Earlier, nothing like these, has been recognized on a Roman skeleton.”

According to Michael, the bite marks indicate, the leftovers might be of someone who battled as a gladiator. It does not seem like this person was attacked by a tiger on his way to home from the pub in York 2,000 years ago.”

Most of the remains indicated that one of the arms was bigger than the other, which suggests them to be the gladiators, who were trained from childhood with a weapon in one hand.

Some other indications that suggest them to be the gladiators include, the healed and unhealed weapon injuries, probable blows by hammers and the presence of the ‘grave goods’ as a sign of respect.

However, Hunter-Mann said that they are yet not sure that these men were certainly gladiators. According to him, the mind should be kept open till the research continues.

He added, “But all of them were male bodies, very strong and mostly above average height, which shows similarity with a gladiator interpretation.”

Wysocki said, “These discoveries have international importance as we so not possess any other prospective gladiator cemeteries with such preservation.”

The studies have suggested that the skeletons are 1,600 to 1,900 years old. The scientists informed that the most remarkable grave was of a tall man aged between 18 and 23, who had been beheaded by several sword blows to the neck. The body was found in an oval grave, which was buried about 1700 years ago.”

Along with this body, the remnants of significant joints of meat from at least four horses were found. In addition, there were 424 horse bones, which were probably consumed at the funeral.

The show titled ‘Back From The Dead’ on these gladiators will be aired on Channel 4 on Monday June 14 at 9 pm.