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Archive for July, 2010

Roman baths at Chassenon

July 28th 2010 Posted at Roman


Visiting France this summer, we came across the Roman Baths at Longeas, a small hamlet just outside Chassenon in Charente. Regarded by archaeologists as among the best preserved thermae of their type in the territory of Ancient Gaul, and possibly in the whole of the former Roman Empire, the baths make up only a small part of the large Gallo-Roman town of Cassinomagus, which is recorded in Peutinger’s Table and lay on the borders of several tribal and later Roman districts. Large parts of the town still await excavation.

The baths were part of a large religious complex and were built around a temple dedicated to an unknown deity. There are 49 huge cisterns arranged in a grid pattern by the southern part of the temple, which were designed to stock water for the baths. An aqueduct supplied water to the town and close by are the remains of a theatre with a flattened semi-circular shape.

Particularly interesting was the use of concrete (opus caeminticium) which was made from slurry of lime, mortar and stone. The trace marks of the wooden forms and planking into which the concrete was poured can still be seen in the underground vaults. The limestone paving on the floor of the hot water pools and the brick pillars which once supported the concrete floor above the hypocaust are also very well preserved.

Like other baths, Chassenon had heated rooms (caldarium and sudatio), warm rooms (tepidarium) and cold rooms (frigidarium), much like a sauna or Turkish baths today. A substantial labour force would have been needed to build and maintain the baths, and huge supplies of timber from the surrounding countryside would have been required over the five centuries the baths were active.

The baths were abandoned early in the 6th century and the site slowly disappeared under layers of earth until archaeologists excavated the area in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Gladiators

July 7th 2010 Posted at Roman

Gladiators are very much in the news at the moment. We have the brutal swords and sandals TV epic Spartacus Blood and Sand going great guns, just ten years after Ridley Scott’s Gladiator starring Russell Crowe. And while we may gasp at the macho goings-on of gladiators who dared to defy an empire, the archeological discoveries are no less astonishing, or bloody.

Three years ago the remains of 68 individuals were found at Ephesus in Turkey, once a major Roman city. Scientists concluded that they were the bodies of young gladiators, together with one older man who was believed to be their trainer. The remains had healed wounds suggesting that they received expensive medical treatment. Analysis showed their diet was mostly vegetarian, although meat was eaten on special feast days.

And then two months ago a gladiator burial ground was discovered at York. Described as the world’s best preserved gladiator burial ground – a sly dig at Ephesus where the graves are more a collection of bones, the York graveyard contained the remains of 80 robust young males, many of whom had been decapitated rather than hammered to death as was the custom elsewhere. One had a bite from a large carnivore, presumed to be a lion, tiger or bear and many had sustained brutal weapons injuries consistent with gladatorial combat.

And now, following hard on the heels of York’s discovery, we have the announcement that the remains of a female gladiator have been found at Hereford of all places. Originally, archeologists assumed they had discovered the remains of a strapping big bloke but the pelvis, head and gender indicators all suggest the body is that of a woman.

With women gladiators and vegetarian lifestyles, our knowledge of gladiators has clearly come on in leaps and bounds since Kirk Douglas played a dimpled Spartacus in Kubrick’s 1960 film. Yet the stream of movies and media interest in the archeology show that the Romans’ habit of forcing men and women to fight for their lives in the arena continues to fascinate us. Perhaps gladiatorial combat demonstrates how different Roman morality was to our own? We have advanced beyond the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering in a public arena, (I’m not counting England’s abysmal defeat in the World Cup). And yet, the use of CGI enhanced close-ups and slowmo techniques to heighten the tension and maximise the gore suggests otherwise. The appeal of watching others struggle and die while you remain safe and comfortable munching popcorn in seat G28 has perhaps not altered as much as we think.