Headless Romans in England Came From "Exotic" Locales?

[JGolomb]

Headless Romans in England Came From "Exotic" Locales?

 

 

An ancient English cemetery filled with headless skeletons holds proof that the victims lost their heads a long way from home, archaeologists say.

 

Unearthed between 2004 and 2005 in the northern city of York (map), the 80 skeletons were found in burial grounds used by the Romans throughout the second and third centuries A.D. Almost all the bodies are males, and more than half of them had been decapitated, although many were buried with their detached heads.

 

York

[caldrail]

Was this part of that controversial "gladiator pit" find?

[GhostOfClayton]

Was this part of that controversial "gladiator pit" find?

 

The 2 sites are only 200m or so apart, and both are (where you would expect cemeteries) along one of the roads out of the colonia.

 

Timing-wise, the 'headless' article is saying about 200AD, but I can't remember a dating for the 'Gladiator' find.

 

Anyone?

[caldrail]

It is interesting that there seems to be a rash of decapitations in the York area around that time. Part of the 'gladiator' theory was that the east european remains were doing that as a result of their native customs, as opposed to good old Roman ones. The report suggets violent lives. Now while the 'gladiator' theory might be the case, we might also have soldiers? To be punished in this way would ten suggest some stern discipline around that time. Or perhaps, if we want to speculate, a legion mutiny that got hushed up?