Roman gladiator cemetery found

[Redrose100]

Heads hacked off, a bite from a lion, tiger or bear, massive muscles on massive men -- all clues that an ancient cemetery uncovered in northern England is the final resting place of gladiators, scientists have announced after seven years of investigations.

The archeological dig has found "what may be the world's only well-preserved Roman gladiator cemetery," the York Archaeological Trust said.

Scientists have found 80 skeletons in the "unique" cemetery under the city of York, northern England, since 2003.

They announced their discoveries on Sunday, ahead of a documentary about the site due to air in Britain on June 14. This was one of two big archaeological developments, with Israeli scientists announcing the discovery of a huge cache of ancient religious objects.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06 ... tml?hpt=C2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Invictus]

Interesting, just finished watching "Spartacus". Didn't realize they had gladiatorial games in England.

[K.Ingraham]

It was popular all around the empire.
National Geographic or Military channel, I forget which, just had a great documentary about the Sparticus revolt & campaigns. Great lessons in UW & COIN warfare.

[Redrose100]

The National Geographic Special was Spartacus: Gladiator War produced in 2005. Very good and fairly accurate historically even though they failed to point out that the Cilician pirates betrayed him thus the need to fight larger armies with fewer men under his command leading to his demise in the battle at Siler river.

Ranger Invictus - Which Spartacus did you see:

I have viewed all of these and for those of you interested have rated same so you can weed out the really bad foreign films.

1960 with Kirk Douglass and Laurence Olivier and directed by Stanley Kubrick 9
1953 Spartaco - Directed by Riccaardo Fredda with Massimo Girotti as Spartacus 8
2010 Spartacus "Blood and Sand" On the Starz network Season 1 carries you to the revolt and Season 2 promises to follow the campaign. Season 2 production is on hold as the lead actor Andy Whitfield has cancer and is receiving treatment. Note that John Hannah playing Batiatus delivers an incredible performance. If you liked 300 you will like this. 7.5
1913 Spartaco - An old silent reel. I saw this once at a collectors party in Los Angeles and it was pretty good. The copy was in good shape and other than the three reel changes it was worth the time. The sets were fantastic and the action scenes were great. Hundreds of extras. Note that the owner of this tape was a close associate of Charlie Chaplin and he claimed that Chaplin had always wanted to do a remake of Spartaco. That might have been an excellent film. 7
1909 Spartaco - Another old silent reel and still available. Not nearly as good as the 1913 version. 5
1960 - 1970 - I believe there wee five or six Italian versions all in the spaghetti westerns with sandals format. 4
1979 - Spartacus - The German version - Not so good. 3
1979 - Spartakus - The Russian version and yes it is a ballet performed by the Bolshoi. It is better than the French version. 3
2004 - Spartacus - Made for TV - The lead actor Goran Visnjic should have stayed with his ER job. Historically inaccurate and Goran should have been forced to at least attempt to lose the accent. But still better than the French version. 2
1979 - Spartacus - The dreaded French Version and I believe the only movie to come out of France that does not have Gérard Depardieu attached in some way. 1

Rumor has it that there is a "I am Spartacus" in Pre-Production but from what I can get on the net it will be based on a comic book.

[Invictus]

I just watched the series on STARZ or Showtime or some such.

A lot more T&A in it....just sayin'

[K.Ingraham]

Thanks for the synopsis RedRose.

[K.Ingraham]

and to quote another Hollywood classic:

"So RedRose, do you like gladiator movies?"

[Chiron]

I saw this on TV. This guy said that the average life expectancy of a gladiator was at best two fights maybe three. He went on to say that the method of the “cout de gras” or final death hit of a defeated gladiator was from the throat front to back, if the people wanted death. In effect decapitating the loser.

Great find. They are learning much from this grave yard.

[Redrose100]

Ranger Invictus - The Starz series did have plenty of T&A. It will be fun seeing how they incorporate the nudity into the second season where they are fighting the campaigns. I'm still trying to convince my better half that the key to a better marriage would be having a staffed spa in the basement.

Ranger K Ingrahm - Ever the cinephile. The gladiator phase ended about two years ago when the neighbor turned us in to DCFS because my boys were engaging in matches that she deemed "A little to authentic" We have now moved on to the Charlie Chan films. Nothing like inviting the in-laws over and running endless loops of the Greatest Detective ever on all the big screens in the house.

RIP Peter Graves (Aurness) - Did you know that he had more unsold pilots than any other actor until 2002. Tons of his work that will never be seen.

[IntelToad]

If they dig up the Pastor's shield, tell them to send it postage paid back to Rock Island.

[hobbit]

They had cat fights too:

http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/gladiator6.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ambracia]

Rangers, I'm just testing the waters a bit here, would any of you support bringing regulated, televised, volunteer, gladiatorial death matches back ? I would.

[Bravo57]

Rangers, I'm just testing the waters a bit here, would any of you support bringing regulated, televised, volunteer, gladiatorial death matches back ? I would.

No

[IntelToad]

Rangers, I'm just testing the waters a bit here, would any of you support bringing regulated, televised, volunteer, gladiatorial death matches back ? I would.

Sure.

You're up first.

[hobbit]

Rangers, I'm just testing the waters a bit here, would any of you support bringing regulated, televised, volunteer, gladiatorial death matches back ? I would.

Sure.

You're up first.

You know the thumbs down for "kill the bum" was invented by 17th century painters and proliferated by Hollywood. Professor Anthony Philip Corbeill, a professor of classics at the University of Kansas, is an expert on ancient hand gestures. He concluded in a white paper in the late 90s (cooberated by other experts since) that the real hand gesture used by the Romans for "kill the bum" was thumbs up, not down. Furthermore, he concluded that the gesture wasn't static, but was quite animated, just like when a modern day umpire waves his arm across his chest with a thumb up to indicate "get oughta here ya bum" to players thrown out on base or struck out at home plate. Corbeill also concluded that the hand gesture for mercy was a clenched fist.

http://www.news.ku.edu/1997/97N/SepNews ... humbs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;