What do depictions of gladiators on Gaulish samian tell us about how gladiatorial combats were staged in the Roman arenas? Timothy Edward Jones
[email protected] (MPhil Humanities, University of South Wales; MA in Classical Studies Open; MA Historic Landscape Studies, Wales; MA Scientific Methods on Archaeology, Bradford; BSc Science, Open; BSc Geological Oceanography, Wales; BA Archaeology, Wales) Submitted in part fulfilment for the degree of MA in Classical Studies, Open University September 2015 1 ABSTRACT This work is a revised version of a thesis for the Open University’s MA in Classical Studies presented originally in September 2015. It undertakes a detailed analysis of a small sample of the gladiatorial images published by Oswald (1936-37) and uses them to present a new model of how the Ludus was staged. This is done by comparing the figures selected by Demarolle (2002) with those depicted in Medieval and Renaissance fencing manuals in order to show how the potters illustrated valid representations of real, effective techniques. The methodology used is heavily dependent on my own experience of martial arts- this spans over 40 years and is something that I have successfully used to interpret ancient and medieval images of combat for conference papers in the fields of archaeology and history every year since 2007, although only two have so far been published in hard copy (Jones, 2009; 2012) other material is available through Research Gate. This work has three main chapters. In the first I subject the figures themselves to a detailed analysis of their stances in which the Roman artistic depictions are compared with depictions from later time periods that are known to have been used to teach sword and shield fencing and also with practical experience acquired through over 40 years of martial arts training.