Let the Games Begin

Despite the tales of combat recounted in ancient mosaics and modern movies, archeologists had never found physical evidence of the fights between Roman gladiators and wild animals on the men’s skeletons. 

Now, an 1,800-year-old human skeleton unearthed from a Roman settlement in the United Kingdom and showing bite marks corresponding to a large cat, potentially such as a lion, provides the first direct evidence of human-animal combat in Britain during the Roman Empire, according to the study. 

The skeleton was first found 20 years ago, when a couple was beginning to plan a renovation of their yard in the northeastern English city of York. Initial research showed that there was an ancient cemetery there, containing the remains of more than 80 individuals. Nearly all of them were young men, and many of the skeletons showed signs of physical trauma.  

The demographics, the injuries, and the burial styles suggested that they were all gladiators from around 1,800 years ago, when modern-day York, then Eboracum, was an outpost of the Roman Empire, according to Cosmos Magazine. 

The researchers analyzed the unusual wounds of one skeleton, named 6DT19, which had small indentations in the hip bones. 

While others had hypothesized that these signs could be bite marks, nobody had proved it yet.  

“For years, our understanding of Roman gladiatorial combat and animal spectacles has relied heavily on historical texts and artistic depictions,” said study author Tim Thompson in a statement. “This discovery provides the first direct, physical evidence that such events took place in this period, reshaping our perception of Roman entertainment culture in the region.” 

To see if 6DT19’s indentations came from bite marks, researchers collected data on what bite marks of large mammals look like by analyzing the carcasses of the animals that zoo lions eat.  

The researchers projected a grid of light onto bones chewed by zoo animals to create a map of the size and depth of their bite marks. They also made a similar map of 6DT19’s hip bones and compared the bites of the different animals with marks on the skeleton, concluding that the injuries on the ancient Roman’s body best corresponded to a lion’s bite. 

However, archeologists don’t think the man was killed by the hip bite. He might have died in a gladiator show or execution, and the animal might have bitten and dragged him away at around the time of his death. The skeleton was also found decapitated. 

Researchers say this bite mark tells more than just the story of one unlucky man and provides insights into the life and culture of the Roman Empire and what it meant to be a Roman. 

“You can imagine just being there and seeing this and thinking, ‘Oh yeah, when the tax collector comes around, I’m going to pay up, I’m going to be a very good Roman citizen,’” Kathryn Marklein, an anthropologist not involved in the study, told the New York Times. “‘Be very good, so that I don’t end up here.’”

Clarification: In our Taxes and Death item on Wednesday, we said that “when modern-day Palestine was conquered by the Macedonian King Alexander the Great, the region entered its Hellenistic period – referring to Greek influence – in 332 BCE.” It was, in fact, ancient Palestine, according to the Smithsonian magazine (or modern-day Israel and the Palestinian Territories): “The region’s Hellenistic period – named for pervasive Greek influence – began back in 332 BCE, when Palestine was conquered by Macedonian King Alexander the Great. After that, the wider region was ruled by two Macedonian empires: Egypt’s Ptolemaic kingdom, a dynasty founded by Ptolemy I Soter in 305 BCE, and the Seleucid kingdom, founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 312 BCE.”