Lesions identified as lion bite marks are shown on the left iliac spine of the gladiator 6DT19.
[T.J.U. Thompson et al]

The evidence suggests the man was killed during a gladiator show or execution, and that the big cat gnawed on his pelvis or was dragging him across the arena about the time he died. The hapless gladiator was also decapitated, indicating he was put “out of his misery at the point of death.”

His skeleton, found in a roadside cemetery called Driffield Terrace, is believed to have been buried between 200-300 AD near the Roman city of Eboracum, now York. He was 26-35 years old.

Archeologists have long been aware of ancient texts and artwork depicting the spectacle of a capital punishment called damnatio ad bestias, and their animal-fighting protagonists, known as bestiarii, but this skeleton marks the first time physical remains have confirmed they took place in the far reaches of the Roman Empire.

Bestiarii, or beast fighters, often were condemned criminals or prisoners of war expected to die. They were not the only ones facing off against animals for the enjoyment of ancient Romans. There were also the highly trained venators, who performed in public exhibitions of wild animal hunts known as venationes.

“We may never know what brought this man to the arena where we believe he may have been fighting for the entertainment of others,” said David Jennings, CEO of York Archaeology, “but it is remarkable that the first osteoarchaeological evidence for this kind of gladiatorial combat has been found so far from the Colosseum of Rome, which would have been the classical world’s Wembley Stadium of combat.”

How a lion ended up in second-century Britain is another story.

It was previously thought that more exotic species were limited to Rome, but further investigation into Roman depictions of venationes and executions carried out by animals revealed that the demand for these shows was such that exotics were transported throughout the Roman Empire, even to its furthest corners.

Excavated in 2004, the discovery has been described as the final piece in more than two decades of research into one of the world’s best-preserved necropolises. The findings are published in the April 23, 2025, edition of the science and medical research journal PLOS One.

“The most direct and unequivocal evidence for gladiatorial combat is trauma on the skeletons of those believed to have been gladiators,” says the paper by a group working under archeologist Tim Thompson of Maynooth University in Ireland.

“Such evidence is, however, surprisingly limited.”

York was a legionary fortress in Roman times, when burial of the dead within settlements was forbidden. Corpses were instead laid to rest beside roads leading out of urban areas, as is the case with Driffield Terrace.

Roman burials in the area date from the first and early second centuries.

Lesion found on the left iliac spine of the gladiator 6DT19.
[T.J.U. Thompson et al]

The paper says it appears all but one woman and seven children were gladiators—18- to 45-year-old men who, judging by previously healed or healing wounds, likely survived at least one fight, only to die in the next.

“The location and type of injuries, including healed cranio-facial fractures, fractured teeth, fractured right first metacarpals and vertebrae, are those strongly associated with interpersonal violence and typical of injury recidivists,” says the paper.

Decapitation burials are a well-known phenomenon within Roman Britain and usually considered a post-mortem burial ritual.

“In the Roman period, all ages and both sexes were accorded this rite, with the removal of the head usually accomplished through cuts delivered from the front to back of the neck,” the researchers wrote. “Another exceptional aspect of the Driffield Terrace burials is that the majority of the decapitations occurred from back to front, a manner more usually associated with execution.”

Some of the healed cranial traumas are consistent with the antemortem injuries identified at the known gladiator burial ground of Ephesus. In fact, the Driffield Terrace burials had a higher prevalence of healed lesions (23 per cent compared to 16 per cent at Ephesus).

“The vast majority of injuries at both Driffield Terrace and Ephesus were located on the left side of the cranium and most were on the frontal bone, common in face-to-face interpersonal combat with a right handed aggressor.”

Overall, the researchers said, the skeletal evidence paints a picture of men from across the Roman Empire, engaging in “repetitive and sustained acts of violence.”

“The skeletal evidence for trauma, together with the exceptional demography and decapitations, are consistent with death as a consequence of participation in a combat arena.”

The group acknowledges that some commentators remain cautious or skeptical of the men’s identities, pointing to a wider range of possibilities, including captives, criminals and soldiers. Those determinations were beyond the scope of the study.

“On the one hand, if these individuals are gladiators, then their apparent execution is not straightforwardly compatible with the evidence for the method of dispatching injured gladiators at the end of a bout (throat-cutting),” they wrote.

“On the other hand, the evidence of burial location and the recurring care for due funerary ritual makes it tempting to identify this as the resting place for a familia gladiatoria (troupe of gladiators), perhaps even one associated with the legion, which would provide the institutional continuity behind such a group.”

Such associations have been noted before and would, said the archeologists, help explain the placing of this cemetery in what is considered one of the area’s most prestigious locations, “on the highest point in the environs of the city and with a military connection attested in the presence of soldiers’ tombstones.”

Lesion on the right ilium of the gladiator 6DT19.
[T.J.U. Thompson et al]

Holst said in 30 years of analyzing skeletons she had “never seen anything like these bite marks.”

The gladiator the team identified as 6DT19 was, notably, buried with his severed head placed on his shoulders. The common practice at the time, as in most of the site’s 82 non-cremated burials, was to place the head between the feet.

Malin Holst, a senior lecturer in osteoarcheology at the University of York, said the man’s remains revealed the story of a “short and somewhat brutal life.” His bones were shaped by large, powerful muscles and there was evidence of injuries to his shoulder and spine associated with hard physical work and combat.

The lesions on either side of the five-foot-eight man’s pelvis, analyzed using three-dimensional scans, are consistent with the bite of a large feline.

Holst said in 30 years of analyzing skeletons she had “never seen anything like these bite marks.”

Which animal left behind the marks—and whether the bites were made to kill or scavenge—can be determined by their depth, size, shape and location. Some carnivores prefer lunging for the throat of their prey, while others go for the head.

Scavenging methods also differ.

A period marble relief shows a gladiator in the jaws of a lion.
[Trustees of the British Museum]

“Another Roman period image appears to show such a case: a lion biting the thigh of a wounded venator on a relief from a likely funerary monument in Ephesus; the inscription which serves as a caption for the scene reports the fighter’s death.”

While the actual cause of death hasn’t been determined with certainty, Thompson and his team found that this unfortunate gladiator must have been on the verge of death when he was dragged away and subsequently decapitated with a single blow between the second and third cervical vertebrae.

“The analysis of the lesions on skeleton 6DT19 provides convincing evidence that these were produced from the teeth of a large cat, such as a lion,” concluded the researchers. “Whether the trauma inflicted happened as part of a show or an execution, this evidence from York also carries several further potential insights.”

The experts said the discovery added weight to the suggestion an undiscovered amphitheatre likely existed in Roman York and would have staged fighting gladiators as a form of entertainment.

“It contributes to the understanding of a key phenomenon in Britain, i.e., the manipulation of spectacles by civic elites for urban populations, using such occasions to showcase their virtue, for example, generosity towards their fellow citizens or loyalty to the emperor through games celebrating the imperial cult.”