Over the millennia, humans have dreamed up some extraordinary ways of earning a living. However, there can have been few as dangerous – or as cruel – as striding out into an arena to battle a lion to the death. Perhaps surprisingly, new academic research on a horribly mutilated skeleton has shown that such bouts once occurred on British soil.
The remarkable findings have been published this week in a ground-breaking study by Tim Thompson of Maynooth University, Ireland, along with various colleagues in the open-access journal PLOS One.
The Romans’ enthusiasm for pitting humans against wild animals has been widely documented. However, this skeleton – which bears the tooth-marks of a "large cat such as a lion" – is the very first material evidence unearthed in Europe that such contests took place.
"The implications of our multidisciplinary study are huge," comments Professor Thompson. "Here we have physical evidence for the spectacle of the Roman Empire and the dangerous gladiatorial combat on show. This provides new evidence to support our understanding of the past."
The skeleton of the losing gladiator was actually discovered some 20 years ago at Driffield Terrace, York – the city known as Eboracum to the Romans. However, it’s only recently that researchers have been able to generate three-dimensional scans of the tooth-marks, allowing them to compare the holes with bites from a range of different animals.
“One of the wonderful things about archaeology,” enthuses David Jennings, CEO of York 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. This latest research gives us a remarkable insight into the life – and death – of this particular individual.”
The unknown combatant was one of 80 bodies buried on the same site, probably between 200-300 CE. Since the remains are mainly of young men, a good many of whom appear to have experienced violence, it is speculated that the location was used as a cemetery for gladiators who had met their match while entertaining the local crowds.
Co-author Dr. John Pearce, of King's College London, adds: "As tangible witnesses to spectacles in Britain's Roman amphitheatres, the bite-marks help us appreciate these spaces as settings for brutal demonstrations of power. They make an important contribution to desanitising our Roman past."
The researchers note that the tooth holes were in the pelvic bone and that they may well have been made "around the time of death’" It appears that those who lived by the sword may indeed have died by the jaws. And rather painfully at that.
Main image: puncture injuries by large felid scavenging on both sides of bone. Credit Thompson et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0
More wildlife stories from around the world
- Time-lapse camera records elusive tentacled animal 5,000m deep in Atlantic Ocean
- “Utterly spectacular”: incredibly rare 'pack ice' killer whale filmed swimming in Antarctic snow
- Underwater vehicle stumbles across never-seen-alive 'glass' animal in Antarctic abyss
- Colossal squid filmed alive in deep ocean for the first time ever