Pilum versus Ballista - Skull Evidence

[Dan Howard]

Could the skulls have been attached to a live animal at the time? Moving target practice?

This is the most likely scenario given Roman sentiments. People constanty try to project our own values onto ancient cultures and it simply can't be done. Legionaries would have thought nothing of using live animals for target practice. In the above test, unless you use live bone the test will be flawed. Dead bone will not produce meaningful results. A far more moral solution is to find a material that simulates live bone.