New Discoveries Regarding Gladiatorial Games In Roman City Of Carnuntum

AncientPages.com - Researchers, using ground penetrating radar, have now done a complete scan of the ancient town of Carnuntum located east of Vienna, Austria.

The research has revealed, without excavation, an entire city area next to the amphitheater, containing bakeries, taverns and shops –an essential infrastructure for Roman spectacles.

Taverns, amphitheater and gladiator school, view from the city wall of Carnuntum – visualization (c) LBI ArchPro, 7reasons

Hidden under the later city wall, the radar system detected the remains of a wooden amphitheater located at an intersection of a road that followed the Roman frontier (Danube Limes) and the main road leading back to Rome.

Since 2012, researchers have explored the ancient town of Carnuntum and the newly completed map reveals, for the first time, the subterranean Roman remains that have been hidden for thousands of years.

Cellar at the taverns – visualization (c) LBI ArchPro, 7reasons

After the discovery of the universally unique gladiator school, measurements were taken around the excavated amphitheater of the civil town and the subsequent results revealed an entire city area complete with the necessary infrastructure for the gladiatorial games.

The route to the spectacles led the people through the city gates past taverns, souvenir shops and food vendors, where street merchants offered their goods for sale and invited the public to linger.

Gladiatorial games at Carnuntum – footage (c) LBI ArchPro, 7reasons

Behind one of the taverns, a storage building (horreum) was also discovered, including a large oven, where bread was baked for up to 13,000 spectators.

The wine and other foodstuffs were stored in underground cellars.

Just 400 meters from the excavated amphitheater and hidden under the later city wall of the civilian city, the archaeologists found the ground plan of an older and as yet unknown wooden amphitheater.

It was strategically placed at the crossroads of the road along the Danube frontier (Danube Limes) and the main connecting route back to Rome, but it was also adjacent to a temple dedicated to the Quadriviae (Roman goddesses of the cross-roads).

Without excavating in the ground, this analysis of the geophysical data has added more exciting chapters to the story of Carnuntum. Not only in Rome were so-called 'bread and games' of great importance for the entertainment of the masses, but also in Carnuntum - a frontier-town along the Danube River, at the edge of the Roman Empire and on the border with barbarians to the north.

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