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A spectacle of the Roman amphitheatre at Viminacium: multiproxy analysis of a brown bear skull

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2025

Nemanja Marković*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia
Bruce Rothschild
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Indiana University Health, Muncie, USA
Danijela Popović
Affiliation:
Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, Poland
Ivan Bogdanović
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia
Sonja Vuković
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
*
Author for correspondence: Nemanja Marković nemamarkovic@gmail.com
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Abstract

Roman amphitheatres were centres of public entertainment, hosting various spectacles that often included wild animals. Excavation of a building near the Viminacium amphitheatre in Serbia in 2016 uncovered the fragmentary cranium of a bear. Multistranded analysis, presented here, reveals that the six-year-old male brown bear (Ursus arctos) suffered an impact fracture to the frontal bone, the healing of which was impaired by a secondary infection. Excessive wear to the canine teeth further indicates cage chewing and thus a prolonged period of captivity that makes it likely this bear participated in more than one spectacle at the Viminacium amphitheatre.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NC
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press or the rights holder(s) must be obtained prior to any commercial use.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd
Figure 0

Figure 1. Location of Viminacium in relation to other larger Roman towns on the Danube Limes (figure by authors).

Figure 1

Figure 2. An aerial photograph of the current landscape at Viminacium, highlighting the extent of the city and location of the amphitheatre (figure by authors).

Figure 2

Figure 3. Plan of the Viminacium amphitheatre with inset image of the area where the fragmented brown bear cranium was found (figure by authors).

Figure 3

Figure 4. The fragmented brown bear cranium from the Viminacium amphitheatre: a) dorsal view, showing pathological changes on the left part of the frontal bone; b) right lateral view, showing a shortened canine; c) ventral view, showing shortening of both upper canines (brown bear skull template by ©ArchéoZoo.org; figure by authors).

Figure 4

Figure 5. Cementochronology of the upper right canine: a) mesial view of the tooth, transverse sections were taken along each of the lines shown, with the solid line indicating the position of the section displayed in b and c; b) photomicrograph of transverse section in plane-polarised light—asterisks show the dentin-cementum junction line, arrows indicate lines of arrested growth and the arrowhead shows the tooth margin; c) photomicrograph of the same section with colours inverted to more clearly show the lines of arrested growth (figure by authors).

Figure 5

Figure 6. a) Ventral view of the fragmented maxilla; b & c) tips of the canines under polarised light revealing microwear; high magnification of pathological changes to the occlusal (d–f) and rostral (g) surfaces of the palate caused by periodontal disease (figure by authors).

Figure 6

Figure 7. a) Pathological changes on the left part of frontal bone with higher magnification of lesions (inset) revealing three fistulae of different shapes and sizes; b) central part of the lesions showing filigree-bone reaction and fistulae; c) the marginal zone of lesions (outlined with arrows); d) x-ray image in dorsoventral projection: the arrows show the area affected by pathological changes and the arrowheads show two fistulae (figure by authors).

Figure 7

Figure 8. CT scan of the frontal bone: anterior (a) and lateral (b) views showing fracture lines (arrows), fistulae (arrowheads) and cystic areas (asterisks); ventral view (c) showing the area affected by pathological changes; and a three-dimensional reconstruction (d) of the frontal bone and the pathological changes (figure by authors).

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