Mystery of the Headless Romans
During 2004 and 2005, York Archaeological Trust undertook excavations in advance of building work on two sites close to the line of one of the main roads out of the Roman town.
The archaeologists thought there would be Roman burials there, as Roman cemeteries were often placed alongside roads, and many Roman burials had been found in the area in the past.
What was found?
The excavations found 80 burials, of which 60 were mostly complete. Almost all were male, and the vast majority were adults. These people were an average of some 2cms taller than the average male from Roman Britain, and they were more heavily built. This is a very unusual type of population for a cemetery.
Of the 60 mostly complete skeletons, about 45 showed signs of decapitation, and about 20 showed signs of other sharp and blunt wounds that could have been fatal blows. Most of these people had therefore died violently. This evidence was only based on the wounds that had penetrated bone; there may well have been other wounds that had penetrated only soft tissue and so left no evidence. About a third had suffered wounds and fractures that had healed.
However, despite the evidence for a generally hard and violent life and brutal death, these people had all been carefully buried, sometimes with grave goods such as pottery and food.
Decapitated and mutilated burials similar to these are known from other cemeteries in Roman Britain, although the York cemetery seems to have an unusually high proportion.
How had they died?
Several explanations for the burials have been proposed, which are summarised under the following headings:
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Some of the evidence fits all of these theories, and although a 'gladiator' explanation may be regarded as the current lead theory for the York burials, none of the theories is entirely convincing. Further study of the cemetery and the skeletons is needed.
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