Posted on 04/28/2011 12:41:05 PM PDT by decimon
The body of a girl thought to have been murdered by Roman soldiers has been discovered in north Kent.
Archaeologists working on the site of a Roman settlement near the A2 uncovered the girl who died almost 2,000 years ago.
"She was killed by a Roman sword stabbing her in the back of the head," said Dr Paul Wilkinson, director of the excavation.
"By the position of the entry wound she would have been kneeling at the time."
The Roman conquest of Britain began in AD43, and the construction of Watling Street started soon afterwards linking Canterbury to St Albans.
>
Many people have a romantic view of the Roman invasion, Dr Wilkinson said.
"Now, for the first time, we have an indication of how the Roman armies treated people, and that large numbers of the local populations were killed.
"It shows how all invading armies act the same throughout history. One can only imagine what trauma this poor girl had to suffer before she was killed," he said.
She will be re-buried at the site.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Even when conquering and then occupying Germany and Japan, Western forces did not behave badly to the inhabitants (Russian forces were another story).
From the size and shape of the hole, could they even definitively say it was a sword and not a spear or kitchen knife (or kitchen knife tied to a pole to make a spear)?
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The Archeologists have been watching too much CSI.
We didn’t invade Europe. We started nothing and invaded nowhere.
The Germans did the invading. And as an invading force, the Germans were ruthless.
The Roman "gladius" was a short sword that had a fairly distinctive shape in the point. It was a fairly short, wide double-edged blade with a pronounced isoceles point. A stabbing wound might possibly leave a distinctive wound channel that other period weapons wouldn't make.
But that said, you're right that there's no way to know if it was a ~Roman~ soldier wielding the sword at the time. Second-hand gladius swords were probably a dime a dozen.
Sword Ping!
Carthago delenda est, anyone?
I wonder what their first clue was?
Carthage started it. Several times. Carthage asked for it. Hannibal devastated Italy, and several other countries on his way there.
In fact, by the time it got to the third Punic War, it was basically a world war, with Macedonia as well as Carthage.
Indeed, it can be argued that Rome became a world power largely by accident. They were content with sticking to their neighborhood, until a series of invasions forced this question on them: Is it better to fight deadly enemies in your own country, among your own people, or abroad?
A question that our country has several times asked itself.
No, you don’t.
The Greeks were no slouches in this area, but they were working on a smaller scale. The ‘Melian Dialog’ from Thucydides ‘Peloponnesian War’ is a good example.
LOL.....
yeah and a Roman could only have one sword as high-capacity sword belts were prohibited...
LOL! That is such a great scene.
>>Carthago delenda est, anyone?
Updated for current politico-ideological threats. See tagline.
Sorry, posted too fast. I meant to say the WWII Allied European forces.
LOL!
(8^D)
The Romans weren't the only ones.
Biblical accounts of the Hebrews' conquest of the Holy Land cite where God commanded them to put every living thing to the sword, and in some instances, not even loot the ruins--pretty 'severe', by any standard of warfare.
MesoAmerican preColumbian cultures commonly sacrificed the losers.
War is Hell, especially for the civillians.
Sorry, posted too fast. I meant to say the WWII Allied European forces.
I am pretty sure we did invade. We invaded for noble reasons and our fighting men acted with honor, but it was called an invasion, right?
Anyone who has read any Roman history knows the body counts were huge in those battles and situations.
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“They create a desolation and call it peace.”
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