Archeologists in the UK and Ireland recently uncovered a rare find: the skeletal remains of a gladiator from Roman-era England. And according to a study published April 23 in the journal PLOS One, the skeleton displays the first-ever evidence of human-animal combat in Europe during the Roman Empire. Gladiator combat is a well-documented aspect of ancient Roman society, but the physical remains of fighters have remained elusive. Images of these spectacles survive to the present-day, but no direct links have supported human-animal gladiator matches in Roman Britain. “Here we have physical evidence for the spectacle of the Roman Empire and the dangerous gladiatorial combat on show.