Mass Grave of 150 Roman Soldiers Found Under Vienna Sports Field

Sometime between the mid-first century and early second century CE, Roman legionaries clashed with Germanic fighters near the Danube River in a furious battle. Almost two thousand years later, gruesome evidence of the bloody event has come to light.

While renovating a sports field in Vienna in October of last year, construction workers discovered a mass grave. Experts from the Vienna City Archaeology Department and the archaeological service provider Novetus GmbH revealed that the human remains likely belonged to soldiers who died during a battle involving ancient Roman legionaries. The discovery and analysis is detailed in a Wien Museum statement published Wednesday.

“In Vienna, one is always prepared to encounter Roman traces as soon as one opens up a pavement or opens the earth: after all, Vindobona laid the foundation stone of our city,” Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Vienna’s Executive City Councillor for Culture and Science, said in the statement. Vindobona was the ancient Roman military camp and settlement that would one day become Vienna. “A true sensation in this regard is the discovery of a Roman mass grave in Simmering [a district in Vienna]. This unique testimony allows us to look at the beginnings of our city’s history from a different perspective.”

The mass grave includes a jumble of human remains belonging to around 150 individuals. According to initial investigations, they were all men mostly between the ages of 20 and 30 years old and showed little evidence of infectious diseases. The experts also noted remarkably good dental health. While dentists would have been proud, strong teeth did not save them from injuries sustained by daggers, spears, swords, projectiles, and other sorts of weapons, which proved to be their cause of death.

“Based on the arrangement of the skeletons and the fact that they are all male remains, it can be ruled out that the site was connected to a hospital or similar facility, or that an epidemic was the cause of death. The injuries to the bones are clearly attributable to combat,” said Michaela Binder, senior anthropologist at Novetus GmbH.

As if the injuries weren’t evidence enough, they also unearthed armor scales, lance tips, a helmet cheek piece, shoe nails, and a fragmented iron dagger. The dagger proved especially useful in dating the remains. X-ray images of the sheath revealed typical ancient Roman decorations: silver wire inlays that clearly date the dagger to between the mid-first century and early second century CE, explained Christoph Öllerer, deputy head of the Vienna City Archaeology Department. These dates highlight just how rare this discovery is.

“Since cremations were common in the European parts of the Roman Empire around 100 AD [CE], inhumations are an absolute exception. Finds of Roman skeletons from this period are therefore extremely rare,” said Kristina Adler-Wölfl, head of the Vienna City Archaeology Department.

The discovery is also significant at the local level, because it represents the first direct archaeological evidence of a battle along the Danube Limes, which made up part of the Roman Empire’s eastern frontier. The rule of Emperor Domitian from 81-96 CE saw battles between Roman legionaries and Germanic tribes along the empire’s border, which likely prompted Emperor Trajan’s decision to expand the Danube Limes a short while later. Until now, those conflicts had only been testified by historical sources, according to the statement.

The battle that took place thousands of years ago “could therefore have been a reason for the expansion of the formerly small military base into the legionary camp Vindobona—less than seven kilometers [4.35 miles] from the site,” explained Martin Mosser, an archaeologist from the City Archaeology Department. The finding “may thus reveal the beginning of Vienna’s urban history.”