Skull of defeated gladiator | Photo: Courtesy Karl Grossschmidt
Preserved gladiator skull with visible traces of a trident hit. This weapon was used by the retiarus – a lightly armoured warrior who also had a net that he threw at his opponent to restrain him. Most often, his rival was murmillo – a heavily armoured infantryman who had a helmet and a large shield.
The skull, along with many other humans remains, was found in 1993 in Ephesus (the western part of Turkey), the former capital of the Roman province of Asia, on the site of an ancient cemetery. Scientists suspect that this is a mass grave of gladiators.
