In 2004, judicial investigations on the skeleton of a young man in the cemetery area in the Driffield Terrace area in York, York, revealed that the holes and traces in the hip bone were formed with the bites of a lion.
Forensic Science Specialist from the University of Maynooth in Ireland. Tim Thompson said that Roman gladiator fights are not based not only on written sources or artistic depictions, but now they have direct physical evidence.
“This gladiator fought a lion in a show”
Stating that the wounds were examined in detail with three -dimensional scans. Thompson, “The lion seems to bite the man in his hip and dragged. This region is not the place where the lions normally attack. This makes the gladiator is already injured in the arena and the lion was buried in vulnerable state,” he said.
It was found that the wounds took place close to the moment of death. Scientists compared his bite traces with examples taken from large cats in the London Zoo. The findings clearly confirmed that the scars belong to a lion.
“A short but ruthless life”
The gladiators between the ages of 26 and 35 were buried in the same grave with two people and horse bones were placed on it. This shows that he is a “Bestiarius”, a special gladiator who fights wild animals.
Malin Holst, who is a senior lecturer in the field of osteoarkeology at York University, said, orum I have been analyzing skeletal for 30 years and I see this kind of bite for the first time. ” Holst said that the muscle structure of the gladiator is very strong and there are traces due to intense physical activity and trauma in the shoulder and spine area.
“Rome’s luxury life has left a mark on York”
According to the researchers, this finding indicates the presence of a Roman amphitheater in the city of York. Experts say that gladiator fights became widespread as a part of luxury and flashy life in the regions where the leading Roman executives of the period are located.
York Archeology Institution CEO David Jennings said, iz We may never know exactly what conditions this man went to the arena, but we have a strong evidence that such demonstrations have been done in the north of Britain, although not as magnificent as the Coloseium in Rome, kadar he said.
The scientific study was published in Plos One magazine.
