Writing and art from ancient Rome are full of battles between armed performers and big cats like lions and tigers. Roman records also tell grisly tales of those creatures killing and maiming criminals, captives and others in public arenas. But so far, there hasn’t been any physical evidence for such human-animal combat — until now.
Bite marks in an ancient skeleton support the idea that ancient Romans really faced off against big cats.
Scientists found feline bite marks on the hip bone of a young man who died about 1,800 years ago. His remains were unearthed in northeast England. In Roman times, this city — now called York — was known as Eboracum.
Researchers shared their discovery April 23 in PLoS ONE.
This photo shows bite marks on the thigh bone of a man who lived in Britain during Roman times. The marks were likely made by a lion during a gladiator show or public execution.T.J.U. Thompson et al., PLOS ONE, 2025
The man’s remains were found in what’s thought to be a gladiator cemetery. Most men buried there were between 18 and 45 years old. The skeletal remains of many show injuries from violent fights.
The bones’ chemistry hints that these men grew up in different parts of the Roman empire — perhaps before starting gladiator training. Heads of most of the buried men had been cut off after death. That may have been part of how gladiators were buried in ancient Rome.
Timothy Thompson led the new study of one skeleton. A forensic anthropologist, he works at Maynooth University in Ireland. His team compared 3-D images of bite marks on the bones to those made by modern animals — including cheetahs, lions, tigers and leopards. The modern bite marks had come from cats feeding on horse carcasses at two wildlife parks in England.
The pattern and depth of marks on the man’s pelvis most closely matched a lion’s bite.
A lion might have chomped down on this man during a gladiator show. Or the fatal feline attack may have been an execution. Either way, the man’s wounds show that Roman officials brought animals to Britain from as far as North Africa for public events, Thompson says. “Our conclusions open up lots of new questions.”
It remains a mystery, for instance, where animals fought gladiators or slayed victims at Eboracum. Scientists have yet to uncover remnants in York of any ancient arena.
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