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The remains of about 150 romish soldiers have been strike beneath a association football orbit in the Austrian capital of Vienna , indicating a bowelless battle against Teutonic warriors pass off there in the first or second century A.D.
Construction workers found the remains in a mass grave beneath a sports field in the city ’s southern Simmering dominion during renovations in October 2024 .
The remains of about 150 men were found in the mass grave, along with pieces of armour and weapons that indicate they were Roman soldiers.
The remains have now been extensively analyze , and the discovery wasannounced by the city ’s authoritiesWednesday ( April 2 ) .
According to the translated argument , the individuals in the mass grave accent were only work force , some of whom were bury with distinctive armor and weapon that established that they ’d beenRomansoldiers . Many had injuries on their bones triggered by artillery like spear , daggers and blade , which indicated that their deaths were due to fighting , the statement said .
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(Image credit: A. Slonek/Novetus)
The discovery suggests the soldier were kill while fighting with Teutonic warriors along the northern frontier of the Roman Empire , which was known as theGermanic Limes . The site of the mass tomb is only a few miles fromVindobona , now in central Vienna , which was a major Romanic military garrison until theGermanic invasionsin the 5th century .
Rare Roman burials
Archaeologists say the discovery of the spate grave is specially authoritative because the Romans often cremated their dead , and so Roman burial burials from this time have rarely been discover .
" In theRoman Empire , there were strict burial rituals and exact rules that had to be observed even for the time after death,“Kristina Adler - Wölfl , straits of the city ’s archeological section , say in the command . " Since cremations were common in the European part of the Roman Empire at the clip around 100 AD , torso entombment are an sheer elision . "
The mass grave accent has been extensively studied since it was discovered in former 2024 . It was announced this month by Vienna ’s authorities .
(Image credit: A. Slonek/Novetus)
The mass grave was found during renovation of a association football field in the southerly Simmering district of the Austrian Washington Vienna .
examination have express that the beat in the batch grave were exclusively male , with an mean height of about 5 feet , 7 inches ( 1.7 meters)—a few inches marvellous than the average romish legionary , but then Germanic warrior were about the same stature . They seem to have been buried in no placeable order or strong-arm predilection , and had been generally in good health until their violent deaths , according to an analysis of their bones and tooth .
" The injuries to the bones are clearly due to fighting , " saidMichaela Binder , a bioarchaeologist with the archaeology firm Novetus , which the metropolis has contracted to enquire the find .
(Image credit: Pavel Cuzuioc)
" From the arrangement of the skeletons , and since they are purely manful stiff , it can be ruled out that the land site of the discovery is connected to a military hospital or the alike , or that an epidemic was the causa of expiry , " she said .
Scientists are still analysing the many bones and artifacts from the tidy sum grave accent .
Many of the bones show the dead put up disastrous injuries , include this recondite cut in a skull .
(Image credit: S. Strang / Novetus )
armor and artillery find in the grave indicate romish soldiers were buried there . The finds include this military dagger , called a pugio .
Roman stronghold
Thousands of Roman soldiers were station at the Vindobona fort at its height in the third 100 A.D. , and the nearby settlement was home to about 20,000 people . Several written story survive about Roman soldier fighting with Germanic warrior along the frontier , but the mass grave is the first physical evidence of fighting at this sentence and place .
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The urban center authority said in the statement that the mass grave accent may have been because of a major battle in the area , which was then used by the Romans as a reason to blow up the fort ’s defenses and garrison of soldiers .
Archaeologists are still analyzing the cadaver from the mass grave and the many artifacts found there , which include a dagger , pieces of armor and the nail from place . The researchers hope ancient DNA analysis and isotope analysis of the bones will reveal more about the origins and the sustenance conditions of the soldier buried there .
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