This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: This 2,000-year-old cold case offered a wealth of information, Leiden archaeologists Carol van Driel-Murray and Mark Driessen explain. Few skeletons from the late Iron Age and early Roman era have been preserved, making this largely intact skeleton a valuable research resource.
In their new book Victims of Violence from the Early Roman Fort Velsen, Van Driel-Murray and Driessen reconstruct the cause of this man's death. This interdisciplinary study combined archaeological, historical and forensic insights. But first, back to how it all began: In 1977, amateur archaeologists unearthed a well where the Roman fort of Velsen once stood.
At the bottom of this well, they discovered the almost complete skeleton of a man with a military belt, a dagger, a ring, a brooch and a soldier's sandal. Archaeologists and historians have been speculating about his fate ever since. The find was soon linked to an ancient Roman source.
In his Annals, Roman historian Tacitus described how the Frisians rose in revolt in A.D. 28 when the Romans demanded higher taxes. Could there be a link to this murder? Driessen and Van Driel-Murray did not want to accept this hypothesis as is because it lacks empirical evidence. 'Written sources and archaeological finds often tell different stories,' Van Driel-Murray notes.
Ancient sources assume that the Romans retreated from the area north of the Rhine around the year 28, whereas archaeological finds indicate a much longer presence. The skeleton in the well raised so many questions that it was decided to reopen this archaeological cold case. Over several years, a team of archaeologists, specialists and enthusiastic students investigated the remains using state-of-the-art techniques, including isotope, forensic and osteoarchaeological analysis, and 3D imaging.
They found further evidence of stab wounds on the skeleton, including on the inside of the rib cage, and numerous perforations in the pelvis. Using 3D models, they reconstructed how these were made. The wounds were most probably caused by a Roman military dagger, presumably the dagger that lay with the man in the well, say the researchers.
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