Eleven (16% of MNI) individuals exhibit a total of 16 well-healed antemortal cranial traumata. Five of the 11 individuals showed multiple trauma. Ten (15% of MNI) individuals exhibited a total of 10 perimortal cranial traumata. This is a surprisingly high frequency of deadly head injuries, taking into account that most of the gladiator types wore helmets. A possible explanation could be the frequently reported deathblow technique used by the hammer-carrying death god “Dis Pater”.
After the final blow, arena servants carried the combatant on a stretcher into the carcass chamber and gave the twitching body a deathblow. It is not known exactly how this execution was performed. The executor, a costumed arena servant, associated with the Roman god of death “Dis Pater” or the Etruscan counterpart “Charun” carried a deadly hammer accompanying the gladiator on his last journey [2], [3].
Page 38 here as well clarifies that noxii were under a death sentence, specifically, when getting their heads crushed, though I can’t copy-paste anything from it.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379073805005815
Page 38 here as well clarifies that noxii were under a death sentence, specifically, when getting their heads crushed, though I can’t copy-paste anything from it.
https://archive.org/details/worldofgladiator0000shad/page/38/mode/2up
Thanks for the reading! Morbid, but fascinating stuff