Gladiator fights were one of the great entertainments of the Romans in continental Europe, and now a joint investigation by several teams from the universities of Durham, London and Reading has revealed that this type of spectacle they were also celebrated in Roman Britain in the second century.
This is the conclusion they reached after studying the so-called colchester vasemade of clay and which was discovered in a tomb in this English town, located about a hundred kilometers from London, in 1853 with the ashes of who is believed to have been a man in his 40s from the southwest of England or even a European.
It is decorated with a representation of a gladiatorial combatand according to the researchers it was created around the years 160-200 d.C. con local clay as a souvenir of one of these events. Due to the intricacy of the decoration, it was long thought that the vase could not have been made in Britain, but analysis of the clay concluded that it is indeed local. In addition, an inscription with the names of two prominent gladiators was cut into the clay before firing, instead of after, as previously believed.
A funeral urn
Frank Hargrave, director of the Colchester and Ipswich Museums (CIMS), owners of the vase, told ‘The Observer’ that the investigation has led to “new and surprising conclusions” when registering the existence of a real show in Colchester, known to the Romans as Camulodunum. “It is the only evidence of gladiatorial combat in a Roman arena in Britain,” he said, while Glynn Davis, a Roman archaeologist and CIMS Senior Curator, described the finds as “incredibly significant”.
«It is a commemorative piece, almost a trophy for the trophy case” that “was later used as a funerary urn” for which they believe that “there must be a intimate connection with the deceased», although it is not clear in what way. “He could have sponsored the games. Or he was a sports fan, “explained this specialist, adding that” for some reason, maybe he saw the fight and thought: ‘I want a memory of this’ ». the researchers They don’t even know where exactly This event and others of the same nature could have been held.
On display at a major gladiator exhibition at Colchester Castle from July 15, the vase, which stands 9 inches tall and weighs around a pound, represents three gladiator scenes with three types of combatants: human-human, human-animal and animal-animal.