Female 'gladiator' remains found in Herefordshire

[Viggen]

Archaeologists in Herefordshire have uncovered the remains of what could possibly be a female gladiator. Amongst the evidence of a Roman suburb in Credenhill, they have found the grave of a massive, muscular woman. She was found in an elaborate wooden coffin, reinforced with iron straps and copper strips, which indicate her importance. Her remains were found in a crouched position, in what could be a suburb of the nearby Roman town of Kenchester...

 

...read the full article at the BBC

[Medusa]

"It's quite an elaborate and probably a very expensive coffin, and yet the person in it looked like they had a hard working life, and so there's an anomaly there."

 

Except for those bronze strips they don't have any indication of how much decorated the coffin was, there's no wood left, so they don't even know of what kind of wood it is. Just because this woman seemed to have led the life of a hard worker, it's too thin to think she was a gladiatrix. There were many other "jobs" as well, esp. among the low classes and slaves, which consisted of hard labor for men and women alike. But it's the same thing as with this York excavation, the word "gladiator" just sells better. In this case there is even less evedince pointing towards the arena than at the found of the female grave in London some years ago, where at least some grave objects pointed towards the arena.

[okamido]

The view of a female gladiator is already being contested.

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/8252448....ims_inaccurate/

[Klingan]

The view of a female gladiator is already being contested.

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/8252448....ims_inaccurate/

 

No wonder. It's good that some people actually look at things from a sensible rather than sensational perspective.

[caldrail]

Medusa is right in that simply because she was a well built lady she wasn't necessarily a gladiator. There are however some subtle indications, or sometimes, obvious evidence other than size. Were there signs of violent injury, especially those that had healed? Were either of her arms longer than another? Were her feet wider and flatter - a sure sign of frequent barefoot movement?

Edited July 3, 2010 by caldrail

[Melvadius]

I would agree that the claim of her being a gladiatrix is somewhat less than proven especially on the limited evidence which has been presented by the BBC.

 

Yes muscle development may be an indicator of this particular activity BUT equally there are several other occupations which could provide similar explanations including laundress, fuller, bath attendant or even blacksmith if the trade wasn't a completely male preserve in the local community.

 

The description of the coffin indicates wealth but not necessarily status.

 

Analysis of the fired pot enclsoed with the burial may provide dates even if it is not of a datable variety - the article is unclear if it is of a known type.

 

Dependent on the dating of the grave this may indicate that the burial actually either predates or post-dates the expansion off the suburb. Burials after a suburbs went out of use in the latter Empire is a fairly common occurance but not all burials were in recognised cemetries and there are numerous instances of cemetries being built over by latter expansions of towns.

 

Regarding injuries or other aspects of the skeletal remains there can be more than one explanation for these, with the possible exception of 'cut' related injuries, so again I would wish to know a lot more before jumping to this particular 'answer'.

[Viggen]

The view of a female gladiator is already being contested.

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/8252448....ims_inaccurate/

 

...and that contesting comes from the senior project manager of the dig (Robin Jackson), so basically the BBC reporter needs a gentle slap on his wrist hehe, but as already been stated earlier, female gladiator headlines sell...

[Melvadius]

I have come back to this story as I recently indirectly heard a report from one of the excavators confirming that none of the archaeologists involved in this excavation started the 'gladiatrix' rumour.

 

In fact during the excavation apparently they initially though they were simply dealing with a male body it was only after they had fully excavated the body that someone raised the possibility, because of the bone morphology, they were actually dealing with an unusually muscular female burial.

 

There was a follow-up article in the Hereford Times about the excavation which was much more interested in the range of finds from this roadside suburb and associated with the burial rather than the BBCs wild speculation about why she was so well developed.