During a renovation also a routine of a Vienna football field, the construction teams found a surprising secret buried for centuries – a mass tomb of the Roman Empire of the 12th century which could be among the only ones. It is believed that the remains belong to warriors who were fighting against the Germanic tribes, and “in the context of the acts of Roman war, there are no comparable finds of combatants,” said Michaela Binder, chief of archaeological digital digital. As the AP explains, the soldiers of the Roman Empire were generally cremated until the 3rd century.
Indeed, “there are huge battlefields in Germany where weapons have been found. But find the dead, which is unique for the whole Roman history,” said Binder. Kristina Adler-Wölfl, head of archeology for Vienna, echoes that of Deutsche Welle, saying: “Body burials were an absolute exception. Roman skeletons finds of this period are therefore extremely rare.” The excavations confirmed 129 organizations – all belonging to men aged 20 to 30 – with estimates suggesting more than 150 victims could be buried on the Austrian site. Everyone had evidence of injury to combat suffered by swords and spears, especially in the head, torso and in the basin.
Carbon dating placed the bones in the period of 80 to 130 ads, and the chronology was supported by other discoveries in the tomb, including nails which were specific to Roman military shoes and the type of dagger used between the middle of the XI and the beginning of the 2nd century. So far, only one victim has been confirmed as a Roman warrior; Archaeologists plan to use the analysis of the isotopes of DNA and strontium to try to identify the side for other victims. (This content was created using AI. Read our AI policy.)
