Archaeology Find: Ancient British Graves of Roman Empire Soldiers Were Decapitated

 Archaeology is a cool science. Uncovering the ancient past and trying to make sense of what happened. It's like reading a mystery novel, but you have to figure out the ending that best makes sense. Archaeology magazine published a story in 2016 about an ancient Roman soldier burial ground found in York, England. The oddity was that the soldiers were all decapitated and buried with their separated heads. It's still a mystery. Here's the article:

(photo: Skeletons from Roman graveyard in Guildhall, York, England, laid out in a church. Courtesy York Archaeological Trust)

In York, Off With Their Ancient Roman Heads

By ANDREW CURRY, Archaeology; July/August 2016 

DNA testing on the skeletons of men buried in a graveyard in York—once one of the largest settlements in Roman Britain—suggests that even the far-flung fringes of the Roman Empire were diverse places. York—then called Eboracum—was the Roman Empire's northernmost provincial capital during the time.nbsp;

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.

While most of the skeletons had genetic signatures resembling people living in modern-day Wales, one of the men came from thousands of miles away. His genes match those of modern-day Syrians, and chemical analysis of his teeth shows he grew up in a desert climate. “It’s confirmation of the idea that there was a lot of migration inside the Roman Empire,” says Dan Bradley, a geneticist at Trinity College Dublin who led the work. 

Oxygen and strontium isotopes in the bones of the headless Romans indicated that just 5 of 18 individuals tested came from the York area, according to a  study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. The rest of the men came from elsewhere in England or mainland Europe, possibly from France, Germany, the Balkans, or the Mediterranean. 

But what happened to their heads? All the men in the cemetery had been decapitated, and many were buried with their detached skulls nearby. Bradley suggests they may have been Roman soldiers or gladiators, but University of St. Andrews archaeologist Jon Coulston calls the idea that they had been gladiators “wishful thinking.”

Beheading wasn’t common for gladiators—or criminals, for that matter. Coulston says, “I see no clear connection between decapitation and gladiatorial displays.” The mystery remains.