A sensational discovery has been made by an international team from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI-ArchPro), together with the Archaeological Park Carnuntum, using state-of-the-art ground penetrating radar devices. After a few hours of scanning, the interdisciplinary team has discovered a unique Roman building complex at Roman Carnuntum, 20 km east of Vienna in Austria and this will shed new light on how Roman gladiators lived and died in the provinces alongside the river Danube.
As the gladiators’ training and living quarters next to the Amphitheatre of the civilian city of Carnuntum (Petronell-Carnuntum), the newly discovered gladiator school has such clearly defined building structures that it can only be compared at the moment with the Amphitheatrum Flavium and Ludus Magnus in Rome.
The completeness and the dimensions of this sensational archaeological structure, which was brought to light with state-of-the-art, non-destructive methods, is, however, unique throughout the world. A highly qualified research team made the discovery. Using non-destructive radar devices and the latest technology from Lower Austria (without having to excavate), experts from the Province of Lower Austria and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute were able to create (on computer screens) the gladiator school, which is still buried in the ground today.
The geophysical systems, developed and used by LBI-ArchPro and its partners, provide detailed information on the nature and location of archaeological remains and imagery of features meters below the ground. At Roman Carnuntum, one of the largest preserved archaeological landscapes of its type in Europe, the team used a novel motorized multi-antenna ground penetrating radar to explore interesting features identified on aerial photographs. The suspicious area lay to the west of the amphitheatre, which was built in the first half of the second century AD and excavated from 1923 to 1930. Following survey of this area archaeologists were astounded when the new sensors revealed an extensive building complex interpreted as a school for gladiators (latin – ludus).
The Roman amphitheatre at Carnuntum held around 13000 spectators and contemporary inscriptions claimed that it was the fourth largest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire and frequently used for gladiatorial games. Despite the extensive excavations surrounding the amphitheatre the area that contained the school of gladiators attracted little attention and the first hints that there was an important building here came from recent analysis of aerial photographs. These photographs showed the main road leading from the town towards the amphitheatre with buildings hosting shops and inns (taberna) on the eastern side. The western side generally showed no structures at all but some photographs hinted at the existence of a large building. The LBI-ArchPro team decided to investigate these shadowy traces using a high-resolution ground penetrating radar system which could cover the area in a matter of hours. The exceptional building, identified through this rapid survey as the school for gladiators, is almost unique in the Roman Empire for its size and completeness.
The gladiatorial school at Carnuntum was set within a massive compound enclosing an area of 2800 square metres and set at the eastern end of a 11000 square metres land parcel surrounded by a wall. The school buildings were arranged around a central inner court where ground penetrating radar revealed a circular training arena, 19 metres in diameter, enclosed by a wooden stand for spectators. The foundations of a 100 square metre heated training hall, an extended bath complex, the 300 square metre administration and living complex of the owner of the school can be seen in the detailed images produced by radar. In contrast, the gladiators appear to have been given cells that were as little as 5 square metres in size. The image of this unique building is so clear that water pipes, sewers and the remains of the floor heating system can be seen clearly, along with the access roads to the amphitheatre, entrances and the foundations of mausolea. The archaeologists believe that they have also located the gladiators’ cemetery, immediately behind a building associated with large grave monuments, stone sarcophagi and other, simpler, graves.
In scale the new detected ludus is comparable to the ludus magnus, the great School of Gladiators behind the coliseum (amphitheatrum flavium) in Rome. The sensational image of the newly discovered School of Gladiators, provided by this new technology, is so complete that it has allowed the LBI-ArchPro team to digitally recreate this unique find without digging. The result can be explored by the software Wikitude World Browser, an augmented reality application which visualizes the school of gladiators on your ipad, android, blackberry or symbian device right on site.
The Roman city Carnuntum was once a pulsating metropolis with about 50,000 inhabitants over an area of some 10 sq. kilometres. Now the ancient city has been awakened to new life: 1700 years later the former glory is being recreated from the ruins. The Archaeological Park Carnuntum has become an internationally important cultural-tourism site due to a generous investment project by the Province of Lower Austria. Unique throughout the world, in Carnuntum the basic types of architecture of a Roman city quarter have been recreated in their historical context: a citizen’s house, a splendid city mansion and a public bathing complex. All layouts and decorative details as well as the level of the roads in the city quarter are from one single period. This opens a unique window of time on the first three decades of the 4th century AD.
Apart from the reconstructions, the Archaeological Park Carnuntum has further locations which enable a closer look at the ancient settlement structure: the ruins of two Roman amphitheatres can be seen as well as the preserved structures of Austria’s largest archaeological monument from Roman times: the Heidentor (Heathen’s Gate). It is situated outside the city walls of the civilian city and was once a triumphal arch in honour of Emperor Constantius II. The Museum Carnuntinum, on the other hand, is Austria’s largest Roman museum and shows the most spectacular finds from the ancient metropolis on the Danube.
Lower Austria’s Governor, Dr. Erwin Pröll, is also impressed by this latest find: “The discovery of the gladiator school is not only an archaeological sensation, but it also has great international importance. This discovery brings considerable stimulus to our successful Lower Austrian Exhibition ‘Erobern – Entdecken – Erleben im Römerland Carnuntum’ and is proof that our investments in Carnuntum are both justified and will have a lasting effect.”
Source: www.carnuntum.7reasons.at
