As you read this story, you will learn the following:
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Archaeologists excavating at the ancient castle of La Loma in the northern Iberian Peninsula discovered the shattered remains of the skull.
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Genetic analysis showed the skull was male and native to the northern Spanish region where Celtic warriors known as Cantabri once lived.
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According to the date of the skull, it occurred around the time of the Cantabrian Wars, when the Romans conquered Cantabria and displayed the unfortunate victim’s head as a trophy.
perhaps game of Thrones It’s not exactly the best reflection on history, but there’s some truth in that brutal scene where (spoiler alert) Ned Stark’s decapitated head is strung on a pike and displayed outside the gates of King’s Landing. The ancient Romans apparently did the same thing to the heads of their enemies.
This was not unusual for Roman legions. They have been known to expose severed heads, hands, feet, and even entire corpses to the elements and onlookers as an intimidation tactic that may also double as a public display of victory. At the end of the first century BC, Rome fought relentlessly against powerful Celtic warriors known as the Cantabrians. In order to seize the Iberian Peninsula, they pursued the Cantabrian people who lived in what is now northern Spain in a series of conflicts known as the Cantabrian Wars. It was at the fortress of La Loma that the Romans finally conquered them, leaving behind terrible memories.
Excavations in the crumbling fortress have revealed a lone skull between the walls, which had long since collapsed at the hands of Roman armies under Emperor Augustus. He had become aware of the complaints of the different ethnic groups within the empire against the Cantabrians, and that was all the fuel he needed to wage war against them so that he could claim the Iberian Peninsula. Unlike the aforementioned fictional character Ned Stark, this unfortunate victim’s head remains unknown to this day. While there is no evidence that it was mounted on a spear, it was displayed on the wall as a brutal reminder of what would have happened if others had tried to bring down the Romans.
“His intention was to complete the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by defeating the last two Celtic peoples, thereby freeing the western European continent from Roman control,” archaeologist Santiago Dominguez-Soleira, director of the Center for Heroes Archeology and Cultural Heritage, said of Augustus in a recent study published in the Journal of Roman Archeology. “He used some of his best generals, mobilized many legions, and invested a lot of time, supplies and lives in this effort.”
Dominguez-Soleira, who led a team of researchers excavating the site of La Loma, found the skull among the ruins, which were covered in ashes from Roman fires and littered with arrowheads, bladed weapons, jewelry and fragments of armor. He believes the cuts and bruises on many of the fragments may be evidence of bloody hand-to-hand combat. The skull was not found in one piece. The remaining pieces were scattered around, probably broken when they fell from the collapsing fortress wall and were crushed by the wall. When the fragments were brought back to the laboratory and dated, the age of the skull matched that of the siege of La Loma during the Cantabrian Wars. Some of the missing parts include the mandible.
Without a name or anything close to identifying information, the only way the skull can speak is through physical and genetic analysis. Bone fragments make it difficult to determine age or sex based on body remains alone. Evaluation of the skull gave an age range of 32 to 58 years. When the researchers examined bone damage caused by weathering, such as cracking, flaking, splitting and whitening, it became more apparent that the skull had been left outside. Thankfully, its DNA is more intact. Since the skull retained 53% of its DNA, it would be possible to recover its entire mitochondrial genome.
Genetic evidence is more telling than any physical trait. Based on the ratio of X chromosomes to Y chromosomes, the person’s sex is determined to be male. His ancestry can be traced back to the ancient peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, as evidenced by the haplogroups associated with the region, including a haplogroup on his father’s side that dates back to the Early Bronze Age and remains indigenous to the Basque region of the Iberian Peninsula. Further genetic analysis revealed that he was located in northern Spain, close to other ancient individuals from Iron Age populations.
But genetic analysis alone cannot answer a pressing question: Why did he meet such a brutal end?
“The symbolism of military trophies was evident not only in the display of weapons taken from defeated enemies, but also in acts of violence,” Dominguez-Soleira said. “In the Roman context, these punitive acts may have been part of an intimidation strategy rather than a ritual practice associated with victory or recognition of enemy courage as a form of warrior prestige.”
The head still haunts Roman history. The Egyptians, who murdered Pompey the Great on the orders of Ptolemy, presented Pompey’s head and ring to Caesar. After Cicero was executed for becoming an enemy of the state due to his rivalry with Mark Antony, his dismembered head and hands were displayed. The shattered skull found in La Loma may still be keeping some secrets, but the once trophy now serves as a reminder that anyone who tried to go against one of the most powerful empires in the world would have his head rolling.
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