BERLIN — A Roman-era mass grave discovered underneath a soccer field near Vienna holds the skeletons of young men from all over the Roman Empire. And many of them suffered injuries to the groin before they died, archaeologists have found.
The grave, which held at least 129 people buried in an "extremely disorganized" manner, was excavated in 2024 and has been dated to the first to second centuries A.D. A new analysis is confirming what archaeologists initially suspected: These are likely the remains of Roman-era war dead.
"This is a spectacular find," Sheridan Strang, a bioarchaeologist with the archaeology firm Novetus, told Live Science. Strang presented new work on the skeletons on Aug. 6 at the 25th European Paleopathology Association meeting. The work is not yet peer reviewed.
The mass grave was discovered in Hasenleitengasse, a neighborhoo...
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