Thanks to Art for sharing this article.  The comments in red are mine.

June 7, 2010
National Public Radio web site:

Ancient skeletons excavated under the city of York in northern England have archaeologists wondering whether they’ve discovered a well-preserved cemetery full of fallen Roman gladiators. The first of the skeletons was discovered in 2003, and since then, more than 80 have been identified.

Note*  I think I have heard about this report before,  except when I heard it  they were identified as Soldiers. I am a little surprized they are  now saying it was gladiators.    To execute 80 gladitors at once seems to me excessive and extremely costly, but to execute 80 Soldiers that were captured in war is something else.   

The remains date between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the period during which the Romans occupied northern England. The skeletons had been decapitated — and that was a key reason researchers thought they had been gladiators, says John Walker, chief executive of the York Archaeological Trust, which conducted the research.

Two other clues that they could be gladiators: One arm is generally bigger than the other, and the bones overall are heftier than usual.

Note*  Again…why does it have to be gladiators?  Twenty five years in the legions, and you tell me how your arm would look? 

“They were big men for the time — 5-foot-7, 5-foot-8 — two inches bigger than average. They were heavy guys — about 170, 175 pounds, which was big for them — and very muscular,” Walker tells NPR’s Melissa Block. “So then we had all these big sturdy guys, all of whom had been decapitated.”

Walker says a muscular person’s bones will be different from those with a slight build.

“A very slightly built person will have very smooth bones with no real ridges,” Walker says. “Somebody who’s very muscular, the bone is actually quite different — you get these ridges that develop on them.”

In addition, Walker says, some of the skeletons had been hit on the head with a hammer before being decapitated.

“That has always been suspected as a thing that happens to some gladiators. They get hit on the head first to render them unconscious,” Walker says.

Note*   A common foot Soldier though smaller in stature than most people today, would still be quite muscular considering you are able to march 25 miles a day and carry 75 pounds on your back.  Because they were big does not convince me that they had to be gladiators.  I am not disputing the use of the hammer but, “to render them unconscious” was not the purpose of using a hammer on the back of the head.  The purpose is to kill them.  Yes, it’s true…the hammer was applied to dispatch badly wounded gladators, and to make sure they were not faking their wounds.   I just don’t think that its use proves their identify.  

What’s more, there is evidence of large animal teeth marks in some bones, suggesting lion or tiger bites.

Now, some theories about these skeletons don’t involve gladiators.

For example, Walker says, these men might have been prisoners. But where that theory falls apart is the animal bites. “Normally we’d expect those kinds of executions to really be quite straightforward, quite clean, no exposure to animals or anything else,” Walker says. “They’re a military discipline thing, not a spectacle.”

Note * Why not prisoners?  Why not Soldiers that were captured in one of the many revolts that took place in BRITAIN.  The excuse that because they had animal bites they had to be gladiators doesn’t hold water for me because we don’t know what kind of executions the indigenious British Culture would have found acceptable.  Anyway, the Romans were  quite fond of throwing people to animals for entertainment.   Why wouldn’t the early Briton’s like a good bestarii show of their own.  No one was ever thrown to the wolves or a bear in England before?

There is other evidence that gladiators may have fought in northern England during the Roman Empire.

“There is an arena we believe somewhere in York, but we haven’t found it,” Walker says. “What we do have is a couple of stone inscriptions from about a half-mile away that by the way they’re phrased suggest possible gladiatorial links. We also have a drawing from a tomb; carved into the stonework of the tomb is a gladiator as well.”

On June 14, the researchers will launch a Web site with the basic evidence so the public can vote. The vote is a good way of introducing people to the problems of archaeology, Walker says.

Note* If they are launching a website so that the public can vote, tells me that the researchers are not entirely sure themselves.

“All our statements are a balance of probabilities. The past always remains an unknown thing,” Walker says. “But I like to think that after 40 years of digging holes, maybe my guess is slightly better than the average, but not a lot.”

Note* The last quote is a very true statement, and I applaud the guy for it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127542467