Fresco with Gladiator Denser do Mérida Amphitheater (National Museu of Roman Art, Mérida, Badajoz).
A skeleton in England may have belonged to a gladiator who died fighting a large feline, possibly a lion, according to a new study.
The bite marks in a skeleton with 1800 years of Roman Britain suggest that a Gladiator was attacked until death for a big feline, possibly a lionaccording to a new study.
However, scientists who have not been involved in the investigation express some doubts about the study’s conclusions.
According to an expert quoted by the failed individual, he would not have been a gladiator; It may have been, instead, a convicted prisoner.
Despite the disagreement, some things are right: man’s bones reveal that it was beheaded, possibly when I was dying or already dead.
“The beheading of this individual was probably to end your suffering At the time of death, or to conform to usual practice, ”wrote the authors of, who was published on Wednesday in the magazine PLOS One.
The shape and depth of the marks of bites found in the man’s skeleton indicate that a big feline, possibly a lionhad attacked him. “The form is entirely Cassistant with documented cases of big cats, ”wrote the team in the article.
The man, who had Between 26 and 35 years at the time of his deathit was buried in a cemetery that one thinks to contain the burials of other gladiators. In Roman times, the cemetery was located in Eboraucum, which is currently the city of York, England.
“The individual, whose bones were found in excavations made between 2004 and 2005, has two possible identitiesit says John PearceArchaeologist of King’s College of London and the co -author of the study
According to Pearce, the individual may have been “a trained gladiator who fought against the big cat with a gun, or a man who had been condemned to death and fought with naked hands or tied to a pole. ”
Pearce considers more likely the man was a trained gladiator. “The probability that this happens is high in this case, due to the argument that the cemetery where it is buried is a gladiator cemetery,” Pearce told Live Science.
The other skeletons unearthed in the cemetery have consistent injuries to those of gladiators. “There is evidence of healed trauma and healing wounds in the collection of bodies recovered from this place, What suggests repeated struggles“, it says Timothy Thompsonforensic anthropologist at Maynooth University in Ireland, and the main author of the study.
“Furthermore, Many of the buried individuals were beheadedwhich sometimes Defeated gladiators happened At the end of a fight, he wrote the team in the article, ”says Thompson.
The struggle in which the man died probably It would have occurred in an amphitheater from the city. “As an important city of Britain and thirst for a legion, the Roman York would be almost certain At least one amphitheater“Pearce says. However, the exact location of the amphitheater is unclear.
Although images of beasts were found in Roman sites and textual reports mention these battles, So far there have been few evidence anthropological ones.
This is “ First Physical Gladiator Fighting Proof with animals From the Roman period seen in any part of Europe, ”the team wrote in the article.
Controversial conclusions
Scientists who were not involved in the investigation had skeptical reactions to the team’s findings.
Alfonso Mañasresearcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who extended the gladiators, doubts many of the team’s findings.
“This man cannot have been a gladiator“, Says Mañas,“ because in the Roman empire, who fought beasts were prisoners convicts or trained fighters to fight beasts – who were not considering gladiators“.
“Researchers who study gladiators are try to eliminate the old error that thes gladiators fought with beasts“, Saltra Mañas Ao Live Science.
Mañas also emphasizes that Tooth marks could have come from wolveswhich are native to Britain, not a lion or another big cat. One possibility is that this man was performed by behead and have been bitten later by a wolf or dogDiz Mañas.
Other researchers considered the conclusions presented in the article.
The conclusions are “certainly An interesting and exciting perspective“, it says Jordon Houstonacademic at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, Live Science. “Overall, this is a great article and very well investigated.”
Also Mike Bishopindependent researcher who has extended the Gladiators and the Roman military, told Live Science that “the article is certainly interesting, largely by confirm what was already suspected – that In the provinces of the northwest of the Roman Empire there were struggles between humans and large animals. ”
