Spectacular coincidence: When renovating a sports field in the Vienna district of Simmering, archaeologists discovered a mass grave from the Roman period – in view of the then usual burials at the time, an absolute rarity. The remains of more than 150 young men with combat injuries from the first century indicate that the victims of a battle were buried here – it may even have been kicked off in Vienna.
In the Roman Empire, dead were usually burned. Such fire burials were common in Roman Europe until the 3rd century, so rare are Roman graves with intact bodies from this period. However, emergency situations, for example in epidemics or in wars, were an exception. Because then so many people died at once that time and resources were not sufficient for the fire burials.
Bones of at least 150 soldiers
A team from the Vienna City Archeology in the Vienna district of Simmering has now discovered such a rare case. There, construction workers came across human bones in the renovation of a sports field and notified the Austrian Federal Monument Office. The archaeologists then began excavation, during which they escaped an approximately 4.50 by 5 meter pit with numerous skeletons. The bones show that at least 150 people must have been buried here. “The individuals were buried with no recognizable order or orientation,” reports the Wien Museum. “The limbs were entangled with those of other individuals. This indicates a hasty coverage of the dead with soil, so no regulated burial.”
This suggests that these deaths have been buried in a mass grave, as the archaeologists report. Also striking: the dead are exclusively men aged 20 to 30 years. All skeletons examined so far also have injuries by blunt and sharp weapons, including wounds by lances, daggers and swords, but also by iron bolts of firearms. “From the arrangement of the skeletons and since it is purely male remains, it can be ruled out that the site is related to a facility or the like or that a plague was the cause of death,” says the Museum’s Museum. “The injuries to the bones are clearly due to fighting.”
Dagate and scale armor allow the dating
Some objects found in the mass grave also confirm the connection with a warlike, catastrophic combat act. According to the archaeologists, the total number of found objects indicates that the dead of their weapons and equipment have been robbed. The most important find is a heavily rusted iron dagger with a sheath. In X -ray recordings, characteristic design work made of silver wire could be seen, as they are typical of Roman daggers from the time between the middle of the 1st and early 2nd century AD. The design of a helmet part and numerous Roman Schuhnägel are also characteristic of this time.
A special find are also several parts of a Roman scale armor, as the Wien Museum reports. This so -called Lorica Squamata consisted of round, overlapping metal plates that were sewn onto a leather shirt and connected to wire. This design was more elaborate in production than the Roman rail armor, but the scale armor established from around the year around 100 gave their carriers more freedom of movement. Together, the finds suggest that this mass grave was created after the catastrophic end of a military commitment at the end of the 1st century.
Defeat against the Teutons
But why and who fought the Roman soldiers back then? The archaeologists suspect that this is related to the location of this area on the Danube border of the Roman Empire. At the end of the 1st century there were always fighting with Germans. These so -called Danube wars under Emperor Domitian were extremely lost for the Romans – there are reports of the annihilation of an entire legion. The mass grave in Simmering is the first physical evidence of fighting from this time, as the archaeologists explain. It indicates a serious defeat of the Romans in the area of today’s Vienna.
This could make the newly discovered mass grave directly related to the foundation of Vienna. Because this defeat of the Roman army was possibly the reason for the expansion of the formerly small military base to the Legion camp Vindobona. In addition to a fortress for the Roman soldiers, this also included a neighboring civil settlement in which members of the soldiers, dealers and craftsmen lived. There was also a larger civil city near this. Together they are an antique forerunner of the city of Vienna. “Maybe Hasenleitengasse opens the beginning of the urban history of Vienna,” says the Vienna City Archeology.
Source: Wien Museum – City Archeology