Archaeologists working outside Vienna, Austria, have discovered the remains of a huge school for ancient Roman gladiatorsâ??a complex so extensive that it rivals the training grounds outside Rome's Colosseum.
The newly located facility includes features never before seen at a Roman gladiators' school, or ludus, such as traces of a wooden training dummy. And outside the gates, the researchers discovered what they call the first known gladiators' cemetery on the grounds of a ludus.
The complex "is absolutely huge," said Franz Humer, scientific director of Carnuntum Archaeological Park, where the gladiator school was discoveredâ??and where much of the ancient city has been reconstructed, a la Colonial Williamsburg. The discovery, near the River Danube, is "one of the most interesting things I can imagine here in my career," Humer added.
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