I recently received a request from a BBC researcher about animals used in Roman gladiatorial games. She is interested in particular about animal bone evidence (deposits of bones of wild animals that would have been used in such events), and even more so in the scarcity of such evidence, given accounts of many many animals being killed in one day. Apart from possible exaggeration of numbers in the historical sources (I am not an expert), I suspect that the carcasses of such animals would have been fed to other animals used in the games or perhaps even to humans, or would have been dumped away from the arenas. If anyone knows of such evidence, please let me know. I would also be happy to pass on names of knowledgeable colleagues to the BBC.
Many thanks, poly
Polydora Baker
Zooarchaeologist
English Heritage
Centre for Archaeology
Fort Cumberland
Fort Cumberland Road
Eastney
Portsmouth
PO4 9LD
direct tel: 02392 856 774
fax: 02392 856 701
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