VIENNA, AUSTRIA—An international team of archaeologists has used noninvasive technologies to map the second-century gladiatorial school near the site of Carnuntum, where at least 80 gladiator-slaves lived in a two-story building. The facility, which had a practice arena, heated floors for winter training, baths, infirmaries, plumbing, and a graveyard, was more like a fortress where the men were kept as prisoners, according to Wolfgang Neubauer of the University of Vienna, whose team recently published its findings. “Lots of other people were likely killed at the amphitheater, people not trained to fight. And there was lots of bloodshed. But the combat between gladiators was the point of them performing, not them killing each other,” he told National Geographic Daily News. The initial discovery and reconstruction of the school were included in ARCHAEOLOGY magazine's Top 10 Discoveries of 2011.
