Quote:Archaeologists in Herefordshire have uncovered the remains of what could possibly be a female gladiator.
Amongst the evidence of a Roman suburb in Credenhill, they have found the grave of a massive, muscular woman.
She was found in an elaborate wooden coffin, reinforced with iron straps and copper strips, which indicate her importance.
Her remains were found in a crouched position, in what could be a suburb of the nearby Roman town of Kenchester.
The archaeological Project Manager, Robin Jackson, said: "When we first looked at the leg and arm bones, the muscle attachments suggested it was quite a strapping big bloke, but the pelvis and head, and all the indicators of gender, say it's a woman."

Quote:The Female Gladiator?

The BBC reported yesterday that the burial could possibly be that of a female gladiator.
This is highly unlikely, according to Robin Jackson. He said: “There are no weapons buried in the grave with her, nor are there any icons that gladiators often had buried with them. There isn't even any evidence of an arena at Kenchester, so there is no evidence suggesting this was a female gladiator.”
So there are few similarities between the strong woman buried near Hereford and the grave of the female gladiator excavated in London near the Roman arena.
Is there a more rational explanation for this female burial near Hereford?
At this stage, very little can be said with certainty but Mr Jackson would bet money on her not being a female gladiator: “That is very unlikely,” he said. “A much more likely explanation is that she was born into a peasant family in Roman-occupied Britain, but then made a good marriage and was buried in a well made coffin.”

Quote:The site, at 159 Great Dover Street in Southwark, was excavated in 2000 by the British Museum. The grave sparked some controversy and debate, because it seemed fairly clear from the contents that it was the grave of a great gladiator. And yet it was in Southwark which, I hate to break it to residents of that fine Borough, has never exactly been a salubrious part of the city.
It turns out that women were a rarity in the male world of gladiators - they would go top of the bill at the Colosseum as a special "treat". So, typically, the female who works in a traditionally male job paid not only with her life (hazard of the job, fair enough) but with her "respectability". Hence, the speculation is, she rose to greatness in the arenas of Europe, and was honored hugely, but, because she was "just" a woman and shouldn't have been seen out in leather armour in front of the jeering masses, she was buried somewhere a little bit out of the spotlight.

Quote:The presence of the fallen gladiator lamp adds a further dimension to the picture, and it might be significant that in the arena slaves dressed as Mercury Psychopompus or Charon dragged away the fallen bodies. The cremated remains are those of a woman and one should consider the possibility that she was a gladiator, a practice which may have been more common than is generally realised... Clearly an interpretation of the cremation burial as that of a female gladiator can only be speculative and may indeed be too simplistic. An alternative, and perhaps more acceptable interpretation, is that the lamp symbolises funeral games, the origin of gladiatorial combat in Republican times