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"Gladiator graveyard": BBC programme Friday
#1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6614479.stm

Gladiators' graveyard discovered
By Monika Kupper and Huw Jones
BBC Timewatch



Gravestones helped identify the site as a gladiator graveyard
Scientists believe they have for the first time identified an ancient graveyard for gladiators.

Analysis of their bones and injuries has given new insight into how they lived, fought and died.

The remains were found at Ephesus in Turkey, a major city of the Roman world, BBC Timewatch reports.

Gladiators were the sporting heroes of the ancient world. Archaeological records show them celebrated in everything from mosaics to graffiti.

Motifs of gladiators are found on nearly a third of all oil lamps from Roman archaeological digs throughout the Empire.

But how much did they risk every time they stepped into the arena? Did they have much chance of getting out alive?

The discovery of what is claimed to be the first scientifically authenticated gladiator graveyard has given researchers the opportunity to find out.

'Strict rules'

The Ephesus graves containing thousands of bones were found along with three gravestones, clearly depicting gladiators.

Two pathologists at the Medical University of Vienna - Professor Karl Grossschmidt and Professor Fabian Kanz - have spent much of the past five years painstakingly cataloguing and forensically analysing every single bone for age, injury and cause of death.

They found at least 67 individuals, nearly all aged 20 to 30. One striking bit of evidence is that many have healed wounds.


The team examined the remains


More details


To Kanz and Grossschmidt, this suggests they were prized individuals getting good and expensive medical treatment. One body even shows signs of a surgical amputation.

And the lack of multiple wounds found on the bones, according to the pathologists, suggests that they had not been involved in chaotic mass brawls. Instead, it points to organised duels under strict rules of combat, probably with referees monitoring the bouts.

But there was also evidence of mortal wounds. Written records tell us that if the defeated gladiator had not shown enough skill or even cowardice, the cry of "iugula" (lance him through) would be heard throughout the arena, demanding he be killed.

Final blow

The condemned gladiator would be expected to die "like a man" remaining motionless to receive the mortal blow.

The pathologists discovered various unhealed wounds on bones that showed how these executions could have taken place. And these are consistent with depictions on reliefs from the time showing a kneeling man having a sword rammed through down his throat into the heart. A very quick way to die.

It was basically the final blow, in order to release them

Prof Fabian Kanz, Medical University of Vienna
Tell-tale nicks in the vertebrae or other bones suggest at least some of the bodies suffered this fate.

A number of skulls were also found to have sets of up to three holes at odd intervals, consistent with a blow from a three-pronged weapon such as a trident.

"The bone injuries - those on the skulls for example - are not everyday ones, they are very, very unusual, and particularly the injuries inflicted by a trident, are a particular indication that a typical gladiator's weapon was used," says pathologist Professor Karl Grossschmidt.

But not all head injuries found were trident wounds. A number of the skulls showed rectangular holes that could not have been made by any of the known gladiator weapons. Instead, they suggest the use of a heavy hammer.

"One possible explanation, which is supported by a number of archaeologists, is that there must have been an assistant in the arena who basically gave the gladiator the coup de grace," says Professor Kanz.

"I assume that they must have been very severely injured gladiators, ones who had fought outstandingly and so had not been condemned to death by the public or by the organiser of the match, but who had no chance of surviving because of their injuries. It was basically the final blow, in order to release them."

'Comfortable' retirement

The work of the Viennese pathologists has been independently reviewed for the BBC's Timewatch programme by Dr Charlotte Roberts of Durham University, a leading physical anthropologist.

"I've looked at quite a few hundred Roman skeletons. I've seen examples of head injuries, healed and unhealed. I've seen evidence of decapitations," she says.

"But this (new find) is extremely significant; there's nothing been found in the world at all like it. They've really dispelled quite a lot of myths about gladiators and how they fought."


Gladiators were mainly prisoners of war, slaves or condemned offenders.

If a gladiator survived three years of fighting in the arena, he would win his freedom. Those who did often became teachers in the gladiator school. And one of the skeletons found at Ephesus appears to be that of a retired fighter.

He was of mature age and because he was much older than the others. The scientists were able to reconstruct nearly his entire body. His head showed apparent signs of healed wounds from previous fights and none of them would have proved fatal.

"He lived quite a normal Roman lifespan," says Professor Kanz. "And I think most probably he died of natural causes."

Historical records suggest a gladiator's chance of survival was slim, with some estimates as low as a one in three chance of dying each time he fought. But it appears one of the Ephesus gladiators at least survived the odds and had a chance to enjoy his retirement from the arena.

Timewatch: Gladiator Graveyard is on BBC Two at 2100 BST on Friday 11 May
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aka Paul B, moderator
http://www.romanarmy.net/auxilia.htm
Moderation in all things
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#2
Thanks for the info. Big Grin D

Have programmed it in and waiting in anticipation.

Hope its going to be as good as it sounds
\\" I just need something good to die for, to make it beautiful to live.\\" Q.O.T.S.A

Gary Rodwell
aka Gaius Longius Deva Victrix Chester Garrison
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romantoursuk.com">http://www.romantoursuk.com
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#3
This was shown as a re-run recently on German TV and was first broadcasted in 2005. It is OK, but a friend of mine, whom I copied that DVD pointed out that they mention something of a murmillo fighting a murmillo. I don't recall it actually since it is some time ago I watched it. It has some inaccuracies as nearly all documentations but it is definitely not the worst.

When I was in Selcuk/Ephesos in October 2005 I saw the special exhibition on gladiators they had there based on the excavations by the Austrial Archaeological Institute.
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#4
Hmmm... Intriguing... I'll have to take some time to read the entire story. But that'll have to wait.
"There are some who call me... Tim..."

Sic vis pacem, para bellum

Exitus acta probat

Nemo saltat sobrius

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

Fortes Fortuna Aduvat

"The enemy outnumber us a paltry three to one! Good odds for any Greek!"
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#5
Avete omnes,

I saw it too in German TV in 2005 - very nice documentation, if You want some pre-information, see on this topic:

link from old RAT

Greets - Uwe
Greets - Uwe
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#6
Quote:This was shown as a re-run recently on German TV and was first broadcasted in 2005.
There has been previous coverage in the press and on UK television, too.
e.g., Times article from 2006, Telegraph article from 2006

Hopefully, this is a new "definitive" documentary.
The UPI report mentions Charlotte Roberts (Durham University), who (as far as I remember) hasn't been in previous broadcasts. (Or has she ..?)
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#7
Well, be sure to let us US readers know how it was, since we don't typically receive BBC broadcasts until much later, and that only on Public Broadcasting, or cable networks (which, sadly, aren't available out here in the sticks where I live.)

Input, please, more input.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)

Saepe veritas est dura.
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#8
Seemed to be a new production -- dated MMVII.
Very interesting, didn't you think?

As a non-Gladiator person, I was fascinated to hear about the "bridge" fighting -- does anyone know the evidence for this?
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#9
Hello Duncan
Junkelmann's book Das Spiel Mit Dem Tod (2000) shows both original sources such as reliefs, plus reconstructions. He calls the gladiators who fought in this fashion Pontarii.

There has been another earlier documentary on the Ephesus gladiator bones. Nice that the latest documentary said that the depictions of mass gladiator fights as shown by Hollywood were inaccurate, illustrated by a scene not from a Hollywood epic but a previous BBC documentary! :wink:
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.

"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.

"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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#10
The retiarius standing on the bridge had instead of his net - which would not have been very usefull there - some stones which he could throw at his adversaries who tried to enter the bridge from ramps on both sides. Mostly they were secutores, but we discussed elsewhere in this forum that one of them could have been also a scissor since one point of discussion was that one scissor alone would have had not much chance against a retiarius hence this type appeared only in the fight for the pons.

Here are the links to the two scissor threads:
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=15319
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=9375
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#11
Another silly question from a non-Gladiator person: :roll:
what's a scissor? (I take it that this is a recently identified gladiator type.)
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#12
He had an arm-guard with a built in half-moon shaped blade. I understand the type appeared quite late, and his weapon was specifically designed to create inpressive bu not fatal or permanantly disabling wounds.

One thing I noticed - were legionaries really employed to escort wild beasts to arenas? (They looked, incidentally, suspiciously like they were wearing armour from Gladiator - appropriate in a way, I suppose, but a shame given the apparent attention to accuracy of the reconstructed gladiators).
Carus Andiae - David Woodall

"The greatest military machine in the history of the universe..."
"What is - the Daleks?"
"No... the Romans!" - Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens
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