New technology helps piece together story of York’s Roman ‘Gladiators’
Cutting edge genome technology, hailed as being the next step on from DNA analysis, has cast more light on a mystery that has perplexed archaeologists for more than a decade. The origins of a set of Roman-age decapitated bodies, found by York Archaeological Trust (YAT) at Driffield Terrace in the city, have been explored, revealing a Middle Eastern body alongside native Europeans.
Archaeologists have speculated that the skeletons belonged to gladiators, although they could also have been soldiers or criminals!* Several suffered perimortem decapitation and were all of a similar age – under 45 years old. Their skulls were buried with the body, although not positioned consistently – some were on the chest, some within the legs, and others at the feet. Although examining the skeletons revealed much about the life they lived – including childhood deprivation and injuries consistent with battle trauma – it was not until pioneering genomic analysis by a team from Trinity College Dublin, that archaeologists could start to piece together the origins of the men.
From the skeletons of more than 80 individuals, Dr Gundula Muldner of the University of Reading, Dr Janet Montgomery of the University of Durham and Malin Holst and Anwen Caffel of York Osteoarchaeology selected seven for whole genome analyses. Despite variation in isotope levels which suggested some of the 80 individuals lived their early lives outside Britain, most of those sampled had genomes similar to an earlier Iron Age woman from Melton, East Yorkshire. The poor childhood health of these men suggests that they were locals who endured childhood stress, but their robust skeletons and healed trauma, suggest that they were used to wielding weapons.
The nearest modern descendants of the Roman British men sampled live not in Yorkshire, but in Wales. A man from a Christian Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the village of Norton, Teesside, has genes more closely aligned to modern East Anglia and Dutch individuals and highlights the impact of later migrations upon the genetic makeup of the earlier Roman British inhabitants.
However, one of the decapitated Romans had a very different story, of Middle Eastern origin he grew up in the region of modern day Palestine, Jordan or Syria before migrating to this region and meeting his death in York.
“Archaeology and osteoarchaeology can tell us a certain amount about the skeletons, but this new genomic and isotopic research can not only tell us about the body we see, but about its origins, and that is a huge step forward in understanding populations, migration patterns and how people moved around the ancient world,” says Christine McDonnell, Head of Curatorial and Archive Services for York Archaeological Trust. “This hugely exciting, pioneering work will become the new standard for understanding the origins of skeletons in the future, and as the field grows, and costs of undertaking this kind of investigation fall, we’ll may able to refine our knowledge of exactly where the bodies were born to a much smaller region. That is a remarkable advance.”
As well as YAT, the multi-disciplinary scientific analysis involved scientists from the University of York and Trinity College, Dublin, as well as the universities of Durham, Reading and Sheffield, University College London and the University Medical Centre in Utrecht. The research also included experts from York Osteoarchaeology Ltd, City of York Council and the Natural History Museum.
The Roman skeletons sampled were all male, under 45 years old and most had evidence of decapitation. They were taller than average for Roman Britain and displayed evidence of significant trauma potentially related to interpersonal violence. All but one would have had brown eyes and black or brown hair but one had distinctive blue eyes and blond hair similar to the single Anglo-Saxon individual.
The demographic profile of the York skeletons resembles the population structure in a Roman burial ground believed to be for gladiators at Ephesus. But the evidence could also fit with a military context -- the Roman army had a minimum recruitment height and fallen soldiers would match the age profile of the York cemetery.
This first genomic analysis of ancient Britons was performed in Trinity College Dublin. Professor Dan Bradley of the Molecular Population Genetics Laboratory said: “Whichever the identity of the enigmatic headless Romans from York, our sample of the genomes of seven of them, when combined with isotopic evidence, indicate six to be of British origin and one to have origins in the Middle East. It confirms the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire even at its most northerly extent.”
Rui Martiniano who undertook the analysis said: “This is the first refined genomic evidence for far-reaching ancient mobility and also the first snapshot of British genomes in the early centuries AD, indicating continuity with an Iron Age sample before the migrations of the Anglo-Saxon period.”
Professor Matthew Collins, of the BioArCh research facility in the Department of Archaeology at York, who co-ordinated the report on the research, adds: “These genomes give the first snapshot of British genomes in the early centuries AD, showing continuity with the earlier Iron Age and evidence of migrations in the Anglo-Saxon period.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
*Archaeological discovery helps us to understand the past through the constant search for answers based on multiple scenarios using a wide range of skills, knowledge and practical assessment. One of the hypotheses we are keen to explore through continued groundbreaking and innovative research is that these individuals were in fact gladiators.
The paper ‘Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons’ is published in Nature Communications.
For more information on:
York Archaeological Trust visit http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/resources/finding-the-future/gladiators-2/
The Molecular Population Genetis Laboratory, Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin visit http://www.gen.tcd.ie/molpopgen/index.php
BioArCh and the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, please visit http://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/centres-facilites/bioarch/
For further media information or photographs, please contact:
Jay Commins
PRO – York Archaeological Trust
Tel: 01904 500698
Email: jay@pyperyork.co.uk
David Garner
University of York
Tel: 01904 322153
