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View Full Version : Timewatch: The Gladiator Graveyard



The Lawspeaker
12-19-2010, 11:47 PM
-4390482079598488912
Timewatch: The Gladiator Graveyard (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4390482079598488912#)



Scientists believe they have for the first time identified an ancient graveyard for gladiators. Analysis of their bones and injuries has given new insight into how they lived, fought and died. The remains were found at Ephesus in Turkey, a major city of the Roman world, BBC Timewatch reports. Gladiators were the sporting heroes of the ancient world. Archaeological records show them celebrated in everything from mosaics to graffiti. One set of human remains, discovered in a gladiator grave in Ephesus intermingled with the bones of 67 other gladiators, has been found to be at least 20 years older than those with whom he shared his grisly resting place. They are believed to be those of the revered gladiator-turned-trainer to whom a tombstone had been dedicated by two young gladiators. This makes Euxenius' remains the world's first to be named. Click here to find out more! Austrian forensic anthropologists Dr Fabian Kanz and Professor Karl Grosschmidt have been conducting detailed tests on the remains for five years. They used a spectrometer to establish the amount of strontium in Euxenius's bones. Strontium provides a guide to how much vegetable matter has been consumed over a lifetime, higher levels indicating a diet of mainly vegetable matter with little meat. Contrary to expectations the scientists found that gladiators had an almost completely vegetarian diet. As with most diets, the gladiators eating patterns had both advantages and disadvantages. Their bland and pulpy diet and reduced salivation associated with physical stress may have accounted for their high incidence of tooth decay, while the higher than average levels of strontium accelerated their healing processes and made their bones more stable