Archaeologists Reveal Gladiator Attacked by Lion in Roman 'Spectacle'
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
It has been revealed that the skeletal remains of a man from Roman-era Britain show he was bitten by a large cat like a lion, meaning that he may well have been a combatant who died in a gladiator show.
While accounts of gladiatorial fights in the Roman Empire are well documented—both human vs. human contests and human vs. animal combat—the discovery represents the first direct, physical evidence for the latter in Europe from this time.
"The implications of our multidisciplinary study are huge," said lead author and anthropologist professor Tim Thompson of Ireland's Maynooth University in a statement.
"For years, our understanding of Roman gladiatorial combat and animal spectacles has relied heavily on historical texts and artistic depictions."
The new find, Thompson added, is "reshaping our perception of Roman entertainment culture in the region."
Big cat bite marks on the man's right ilium (hip bone).
Big cat bite marks on the man's right ilium (hip bone).
From the research paper: Unique osteological evidence for human-animal gladiatorial combat in Roman Britain
The man's remains, which date back to around 200 to 300 C.E., were unearthed from the Driffield Terrace cemetery in York (once the Roman city of Eboracum) 20 years ago, along with 81 other burials and evidence of 14 cremations.
Based on the fact that the remains appeared to belong mainly to young men—and that many exhibited signs of trauma in the form of bone fractures or decapitation in an execution-style—it had long been speculated that the burials could be of gladiators.
The individual in question, who has been given the id "6DT19," was previously noted to have a series of depressions on his pelvis, which had been speculated to be carnivore bites.
In the new study, the researchers created a three-dimensional scan of the marks, allowing them to be compared with the bite marks known to be left by various animals.
The best fit was found to be from the bite of a big cat. Given the bite marks were found on the pelvis, the team said that they could have come from a lion scavenging on the body around the time of death.
"As tangible witnesses to spectacles in Britain's Roman amphitheatres, the bitemarks help us appreciate these spaces as settings for brutal demonstrations of power," said paper co-author and archaeologist John Pearce of King's College London, England, in a statement.
Pearce added: "They make an important contribution to desanitizing our Roman past."
"One of the wonderful things about archaeology is that we continue to make discoveries even years after a dig has concluded, as research methods and technology enable us to explore the past in more detail," said York Archaeology CEO David Jennings.
"This latest research gives us a remarkable insight into the life—and death—of this particular individual, and adds to both previous and ongoing genome research into the origins of some of the men buried in this particular Roman cemetery.
"We may never know what brought this man to the arena where we believe he may have been fighting for the entertainment of others, but it is remarkable that the first osteo-archaeological evidence for this kind of gladiatorial combat has been found so far from the Colosseum of Rome."
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Romans? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Reference
Thompson, T. J. U., Errickson, D., McDonnell, C., Holst, M., Caffell, A., Pearce, J., & Gowland, R. L. (2025). Unique osteological evidence for human-animal gladiatorial combat in Roman Britain. PLOS ONE, 20(4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319847
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