Tantalising descriptions of women gladiators exist in ancient texts. Unfortunately, the writer’s preoccupations often limit these sources and often do not relate to society in general, making it difficult to decide how common female gladiators were.

Archaeological evidence can provide some extra pieces of the puzzle. But the matter is not always clear cut. Finds can be open to interpretation and debate amongst the experts. In other cases, over-eagerness to report the discovery of a female gladiator can lead to media sensationalisation.

The Missio of Halicarnassus

“Missio” is the Latin term applied to a discharge or release of defeated gladiators from a bout in the arena. The missio of Halicarnassus is a relief which commemorates the survival of both participants in a fight that occurred in the first or second century AD.

The marble relief from Turkey is now housed in the British Museum. That so much effort and expense was put into commemorating two gladiators is unusual in itself. But what makes the relief unique is that the fighters are women.

The relief depicts the gladiators fighting. We know they are women from their arena names’ “Amazon” and “Achillia”, inscribed on the stone in Greek. However, their sex is conclusively revealed by the gladiator’s unhelmeted heads.

But in every other respect, the women are dressed and fighting in the same way as male gladiators. They were provocatores — a gladiator that challenged other provocatores, modelled on a Roman soldier. The female gladiator’s legs were protected with greaves, as were their arms and they fought with short swords and shields.

This relief shows that professional female gladiators existed and fought in the same way as their male counterparts. The stone also acknowledges their bravery, as the stone was commissioned to commemorate the survival of both women after a good fight.

Great Dover Street Woman — a London Gladiatrix?

Great Dover Street Woman was discovered during excavations of a Roman cemetery in London during the late 1990s. Archaeologists from the University of London believe that she was once a female gladiator. However, other experts disagree.

From surviving fragments of the pelvis, archaeologists identify the grave as belonging to a woman in her early 20s. The body was cremated directly over the pit, which contained the remains and grave goods. This type of cremation, known as a bustum, was rare in Britain.

Several pieces of evidence from the grave were used to support the theory of Great Dover Street woman as a gladiatrix: 

• The location of the grave. This occupied a peripheral position in the graveyard, usually assigned to social outcasts. But the contents of the grave suggested the woman was no pauper. Remains of high-status foodstuffs were found, including the first complete date found in Roman London, four chickens, and a dove. Eight tazze — open vessels used to burn incense — also occupied the grave.
• Lamps. The grave also contained eight unused lamps imported from Gaul. Four were plain, but the others were decorated with motifs significant to the arena. Three depicted the Egyptian god of judgment, Anubis, who was associated with the god Mercury in Roman religion. Slaves dressed as Mercury dragged away dead gladiators in the arena. The final lamp showed a fallen gladiator.
• Pine cones. The remains of hundreds of pine cones were also unearthed. These cones would have been added to the funeral pyre to mask the smell of the cremation. But they had an added significance. These specific pine cones were native to Italy rather than Britain — and they were often grown around amphitheatres.

The peripheral location of the burial, evidence of an expensive funeral and grave goods linked to the games led archaeologists to conclude that there was a strong possibility the woman had once been a female gladiator, possibly from abroad, who had fought in a large arena of Roman London.

However, Professor Kathleen Coleman of Harvard University dismissed this evidence as proof that the woman was a female gladiator. In Discover magazine’s 2001 article Gladiatrix, she explains that lamps decorated with gladiators were popular household items. Nor is a costly funeral proof the woman was a gladiator as there are no records that gladiators and charioteers became wealthy from their profession.

This last point could now be contended based on evidence from a potential gladiator cemetery in York. But the case of Great Dover Street Woman does show the difficulties of drawing firm conclusions without the presence of defining evidence such as weapons or detailed bone analysis.

A New Female Gladiator near Hereford?

Sometimes, however, a whole skeleton can lead to erroneous conclusions by the press rather than archaeologists.

In 2010, the remains of a large, powerfully built woman were found in modern Kenchester, just outside the city of Hereford in the UK, once the site of a small Roman town called Magnis. 

The woman was once again buried outside the Roman graveyard. Her bones suggested a life of hard physical labour. Yet her coffin had decorative bronze bindings, suggesting someone of higher status than a labourer.

The archaeological Project Manager of the site, Robin Jackson, was at pains to draw no conclusions about the body saying he would leave theories of the woman’s remains as those of a female warrior “to people’s imaginations”.

However, despite the lack of any nearby amphitheatre or any weapons in the grave, stories began to rise in the press that the woman was a female gladiator, leading Herefordshire council to issue a statement setting the record straight.

Evidence for Female Gladiators?

So does archaeological evidence tell us more about female gladiators? In some instances, it can increase our understanding of the phenomenon. But interpretation is the key. In the case of Great Dover Street Woman, the conclusions are only suggestive and open for further investigation. But by the experts — not by the popular press.

Resources

“Archaeologists Refute Reports of Female Gladiator.” Herefordshire Council Website.

“Female ‘Gladiator’ Remains Found in Herefordshire” BBC website

Hall, J, June 2001. “Girl Power” Classical Association News No 24 

Murray, S, July 2003. “Female Gladiators of the Ancient Roman world”. Journal of Combative Sport.

Pringle, H, 2001. “Gladiatrix“. Discover Magazine