Gladiatorial fights were more than just human-versus-human contests in the Colosseum in Rome and other amphitheaters in cities dotted throughout the vast ancient Roman Empire. Animals were pitted against gladiators as well.
Ancient literature and mosaics describe these competitions, but up until now, concrete forensic proof has been hard to come by. Scientists have discovered that a huge cat, most likely a lion, made the bite scars on the pelvis of a man who was buried in what is thought to be a gladiator cemetery close to York, England.
The individual, who was between 26 and 35 years old when he passed away, seems to have lived around the third century AD, when
