Archaeologists have discovered a series of eleven out of seventeen third century burials where the head of the person has been cut off in a Roman burial ground on the site of the deserted medieval village at Winteringham on the edge of St Neots in Huntingdonshire.
The remains appear to be linked to other similar burials which have been found in recent years. It is apparently not yet clear if they indicate death by judicial or military execution, ‘mercy killing’ of gladiators ( as has been suggested of a series of such burials in York ), or a funeral ritual.
These burials are just part of the history of a village whose history stretched back into the Iron Age.
The report from the BBC News site can be seen at Roman headless remains found by archaeologists
There is more about the discovery in a useful report from a local website at Wintringham’s fascinating Roman past and unusual cemetery brought to light in new episode of BBC's Digging for Britain
The mercy killing of gladiators by decapitation doesn't sound at all likely, because injured "noxii" gladiators, i.e. those who had been sentenced to death by combat in the arena, were killed by a hammer blow to the head by someone dressed as Charon, the ferryman of the underworld. They were then dragged out of the arena by hooks through their Achilles tendons.
ReplyDeleteInjured defeated non-noxii, i.e. "auctorati" (citizens who had sold themselves to a gladiator school for money) or "veterani" (trained and experienced) gladiators, weren't killed at all, assuming the crowd spared them, but were stretchered out of the arena to receive medical attention!
Regards
John R Ramsden