During the renovation of a football stadium in Vienna, construction workers found a collective grave of the Roman Empire’s time. It has found at least 129 skeletons. Experts say that these skeletons are probably of warriors who were killed in the war with Germanic tribes about 2,000 years ago.
According to a report by The Independent, it was discovered in October last year when renewal work was going on in a playground in Siming district. The construction company discovered a large number of human remains and informed them to the Archaeological Department of the Vienna Museum. Later excavations and analysis showed that this tomb is of the first century, the period of the Roman Empire when the Vienna region was home to a major military fort called Windobona.
A unique event in Roman history
Michela Binder, who led the archaeological excavation, said that there are no comparable remains of soldiers in the context of Roman war events. Germany has vast battles where weapons have been found. But finding the dead is a unique event in Roman history.
Mass grave found
Christina Adler-Wolf, head of the Vienna city archeology department, described this discovery as an opportunity to be found once in life. He said that at that time the cremation was common in the European parts of the Roman Empire, so these types of burials are extremely rare. The skeletons found in the tombs had marks of injuries during the war, such as deep wounds on the head, torso etc. This shows that these people were killed in a big fight and were not victims of any massacre or punishment. All the victims were men. Most of them were 20 to 30 years old and their teeth were generally good.
Many important evidences were found in the grave.
Archaeologists have also recovered several important items from the tomb, including a dagger, armor pieces and nails of Roman military shoes (caliga). An iron spear was also found trapped in the waist bone of a skeleton, which reflects the cruelty of the war at that time. Experts say that this collective grave can provide material evidence of the first known battle fought in the field of present Vienna. Carbon-14 analysis showed that bones were between 80 and 130 AD.
Further investigation is on.
So far, only one body has been confirmed by the Roman soldier. A team of archaeologists is trying to find out through which side the remaining warriors belonging to DNA and Strontium isotope analysis. Experts at the Vienna Museum gave the first public presentation on this discovery this week, and linked it to “a disastrous event in military context”.
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