At Ier century BC, the Romans were not known to deal with those who resisted them. A new archaeological study, published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology, provides yet another proof. Scientists have unearthed a human skull from a 2,000-year-old Spanish fort, believed to have been displayed on the city walls by soldiers of the Empire.
Let’s go back a little. At Ier century BC, Rome engaged in several wars against the Cantabrians, fierce Celtic warriors living in what is now northern Spain. The objective of these wars, called Cantabrian (29 to 19 BC) and led by Octavian (known as Augustus), was to control the Iberian Peninsula. One battle was particularly violent: that of the siege of La Loma (“The Hill”), a fortified Celtic city located in the current province of Palencia, in 25 BC.
Deterrence and severed head
It is precisely on its ruins that archaeologists have organized excavations. In particular, they discovered that after their victory, the Romans demolished the walls of the fort. Better yet, they found a contemporary skull from the battle, buried among the debris of the wall, which says a lot about the intimidation techniques of the Roman troops.
A DNA study of the skull revealed that it belonged to a man around 45 years old, probably from the area. No trace of his skeleton was found, suggesting that his head had previously been severed. That’s not all: the study established that it had been exposed to the elements for a certain time, before being broken and buried under the wall when it was destroyed.
For archaeologists, this discovery leaves little room for doubt: the man died defending the fort, before the Romans placed his decapitated head at the top of the wall during their occupation of the site. A brutal, punitive treatment, which aimed to intimidate their enemies. The Roman legions sometimes even exposed entire corpses, when they were not the hands – and therefore the heads – of their defeated adversaries.
Some mysteries still persist. No distinctive mark allows us to know whether the victim’s head was, for example, impaled on a pike. Scientists are therefore looking for other traces and remains of these punishments on the site, to understand their extent.
