Here’s what you’ll learn from reading this story:
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While excavating the ancient fort of La Loma in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, archaeologists found the shattered remains of a skull.
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Genetic analysis shows that the skull was male and native to a region of northern Spain where Celtic warriors known as Cantabri lived.
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The age of the skull places it around the time of the Cantabrian wars, when the Romans conquered the Cantabrians and displayed the head of this unfortunate victim as a trophy.
Maybe Game of Thrones it’s not exactly the best reflection of history, but there is some truth in that ghoulish scene where (spoiler alert) Ned Stark’s decapitated head was put on a pike and displayed outside the gates of King’s Landing. The ancient Romans apparently did the same with the heads of their enemies.
This was not out of the norm for the Roman legions. They were known to expose heads, hands, feet, and even whole corpses cut to the elements and those who see as an intimidation tactic that possibly doubled as a public display of victory. Rome fought relentlessly against formidable Celtic warriors known as the Cantabri towards the end of the first century BC With an eye to capturing the Iberian Peninsula, they pursued the Cantabrians, who lived in what is now northern Spain, in a series of conflicts known as the Cantabrian Wars. It was in the fortress of La Loma that the Romans finally defeated them—and left an ugly reminder.
Excavations in the crumbling fort revealed a lone skull lying between the walls that had long since fallen into the hands of the Roman army under the emperor Augustus. He was already aware of the complaints about the Cantabrians from different ethical groups within the empire, and that was all the fuel he needed to wage war against them so he could claim the Iberian Peninsula. Unlike the aforementioned fictional Ned Stark, the head of this unfortunate wretch remains nameless. While there is no evidence of it being raised on a pike, it was displayed above the wall as a ghoulish reminder of what would happen if someone else tried to free the Romans.
“His intention was to complete the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by defeating the last two Celtic nations to remain outside the control of Rome in western continental Europe,” said archaeologist Santiago Domínguez-Solera, director of Heroic Archeology and Cultural Heritage, about Augustus in a study recently published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology. “He utilized some of his best generals, mobilized many of his legions, and made enormous investments of time, materials, and human lives in this effort.”
Domínguez-Solera, who led a team of researchers in excavating the La Loma site, discovered the skull among remains covered in ash from a Roman fire and littered with arrowheads, bladed weapons, jewelry, and armor fragments. He thinks that cuts and bruises on many of these pieces are possible evidence of bloody hand-to-hand combat. The skull was not found in one piece. What was left of it was scattered, possibly broken when it fell from the collapsing walls of the fort and was then crushed by them. When these pieces were brought back to the laboratory and dated, the age of the skull aligned with the siege of La Loma during the Cantabrian Wars. Some of the missing parts included the mandible.
Without a name or anything close to identifying information, the only way the skull could speak was through physical and genetic analysis. The fragmentation of the bones made it difficult to tell age or gender from physical remains alone. An assessment of the skull came up with an age range of anywhere from 32 to 58 years. It also became more obvious that the skull had been left out when the researchers examined weathering damage to the bones, such as cracking, chipping, cracking, and bleaching. Thankfully, his DNA was more intact. Because the skull retained 53% of its DNA, it was possible to recover its entire mitochondrial genome.
The genetic evidence said more than any physical characteristic could. The sex of this individual was determined to be male based on the ratio of X to Y chromosomes. His ancestors go back to the ancient peoples of the Iberian peninsula, as evidenced by haplogroups that are associated with the area, including a haplogroup on his paternal side that dates to the early Bronze Age and is still indigenous to the Basque region of the Iberian Peninsula. Further genetic analysis placed him in northern Spain next to other ancient individuals from Iron Age populations.
But genetic analysis alone could not answer one pressing question: why did he meet such a disjointed end?
“The symbolism of the military trophy has been materialized not only in the display of weapons taken from defeated enemies, but also in acts of violence,” said Domínguez-Solera. “In Roman contexts, these punitive acts may have been part of intimidation strategies rather than ritual practices related to victory or the recognition of the courage of enemies as a form of warrior prestige.”
Heads still hit Roman history. The Egyptians who killed Pompey the Great on the order of Pharaoh Ptolemy presented his head and the ring to Caesar. After Cicero was executed for being an enemy of the state for his rivalry with Mark Antony, his shaved head and hands were displayed. The shattered skull found at La Loma may still hold some secrets, but what was once a trophy is now a reminder that if anyone tried to oppose one of the world’s most powerful empires, heads would quite literally be turned on.
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