From TFA:
“Since cremations were common in the European parts of the Roman Empire around 100 AD [CE], inhumations are an absolute exception. Finds of Roman skeletons from this period are therefore extremely rare,” said Kristina Adler-Wölfl, head of the Vienna City Archaeology Department.
Which might tell a story in itself. This might have been a small detachment that was ambushed and utterly wiped out, leaving nobody alive on the Roman side to perform the traditional funeral rites. Instead the attackers were left to bury the bodies in their own tradition.
A simple DNA test should tell us. Roman soldiers were recruited from a diverse gene pool and fought far from their birthplace in mixed groups. A simple test to determine the average variance of genetics will let us know if they were a single ethnicity. Further cross references to compare similarity to other known genomes can tell us which region an individual was from.
Whole genetic sequencing cost about $500. So <$75,000 for the sequencing of the entire 150, plus scientist time to gather samples and process results. Answering the question through genetics probably costs more than $250,000 even with cheap grad student labor, so it's probably just not worth it, especially when the moral high ground is to let the dead rest.
The Roman empire at this time made massive use of auxiliaries - ie not Romans. These are soldiers from conquered lands. Mercenaries were also used a lot. Mercs are soldiers for hire rather than hired soldiers!
Auxiliaries might be closer to slaves than soldiers and mercenaries might have fewer rights than auxiliaries. The devil is in the details. Auxiliaries might be granted Roman Citizenship at commencement or after a period of service.
In general the policy was to deploy aux. from the other end of the empire to augment your top troops in a particular war theatre. Mercs were used to top up if available - think of them as Uber or Lyft when you've run out of decent taxis 8)
Ideally you'd expend your aux and mercs carefully, to keep your real killers (heavy infantry) going. However its just not that simple, depending on what you (Roman General) had at your disposal in terms of troops. It also depended on you not being daft and throwing your cavalry up hill at pointy sticks or whatever. "Skirmishers" can also be devastating:
The Germans (have a look at my username - yes I'm English) german - might mean spearman (I was told this by a bloke from Bayern). They were skirmishers - no armour and a big pointy stick and a buckler shield. They brought low several Roman legions.
Anyway. The term Legionary is a tricky one. And so is German and quite a few other terms here.
I also wondered about the power extension reels, looks like two of them are the REV model shown here: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07KKQMVLW although one is a bit battered and the outer blue plate has fallen off.
Could be a variety of Henry: https://www.myhenry.com/ However it looks like the wheels in th piccie are outside the major plan view of the body, so perhaps not.
Romans usually burnt their corpses, so it is quite unusual to find skeletons.
From TFA: “Since cremations were common in the European parts of the Roman Empire around 100 AD [CE], inhumations are an absolute exception. Finds of Roman skeletons from this period are therefore extremely rare,” said Kristina Adler-Wölfl, head of the Vienna City Archaeology Department.
Which might tell a story in itself. This might have been a small detachment that was ambushed and utterly wiped out, leaving nobody alive on the Roman side to perform the traditional funeral rites. Instead the attackers were left to bury the bodies in their own tradition.
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"The experts also noted remarkably good dental health."
The Roman army must have had good deductibles.
And CDI plans better than those in year MMXXV.
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good selection of conscripts
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Too poor to afford sugar.
Actually bread was the most common issue for poor dental hygiene at this time.
Flour was ground by stone, tiny pieces of stone made its way into the bread, and the stone stripped the enamel from teeth.
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Sugar (cane or refined) wasn't really a thing in the Roman period, even for those who could theoretically have afforded it.
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There are some funny questions in the comments: "So to be clear, they were Roman soldiers killed. Not locals?"
That caused me to re-read the article. Actually it is surprisingly ambiguous on that point inside the text of the article, with wording like
> the human remains likely belonged to soldiers who died during a battle involving ancient Roman legionaries.
Doesn’t say which side they were on. The most direct bit seems to be
> X-ray images of the sheath revealed typical ancient Roman decorations: silver wire inlays […]
But a German could just have traded with a Roman at some point.
Of course, the headline says they are Roman soldiers. I wonder if it is hard to tell definitively.
A simple DNA test should tell us. Roman soldiers were recruited from a diverse gene pool and fought far from their birthplace in mixed groups. A simple test to determine the average variance of genetics will let us know if they were a single ethnicity. Further cross references to compare similarity to other known genomes can tell us which region an individual was from.
Whole genetic sequencing cost about $500. So <$75,000 for the sequencing of the entire 150, plus scientist time to gather samples and process results. Answering the question through genetics probably costs more than $250,000 even with cheap grad student labor, so it's probably just not worth it, especially when the moral high ground is to let the dead rest.
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The Roman empire at this time made massive use of auxiliaries - ie not Romans. These are soldiers from conquered lands. Mercenaries were also used a lot. Mercs are soldiers for hire rather than hired soldiers!
Auxiliaries might be closer to slaves than soldiers and mercenaries might have fewer rights than auxiliaries. The devil is in the details. Auxiliaries might be granted Roman Citizenship at commencement or after a period of service.
In general the policy was to deploy aux. from the other end of the empire to augment your top troops in a particular war theatre. Mercs were used to top up if available - think of them as Uber or Lyft when you've run out of decent taxis 8)
Ideally you'd expend your aux and mercs carefully, to keep your real killers (heavy infantry) going. However its just not that simple, depending on what you (Roman General) had at your disposal in terms of troops. It also depended on you not being daft and throwing your cavalry up hill at pointy sticks or whatever. "Skirmishers" can also be devastating:
The Germans (have a look at my username - yes I'm English) german - might mean spearman (I was told this by a bloke from Bayern). They were skirmishers - no armour and a big pointy stick and a buckler shield. They brought low several Roman legions.
Anyway. The term Legionary is a tricky one. And so is German and quite a few other terms here.
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Can anyone tell me the manufacturer and model of the small, round vacuum cleaners in the photograph? You cannot believe how filthy my workshop gets.
I'm pretty sure it's this Einhell Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner: https://www.einhell.nl/en/p/2342370-tc-vc-1812-s/ this guy in England seemed quite happy with his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyOu6TyEUuY
I also wondered about the power extension reels, looks like two of them are the REV model shown here: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07KKQMVLW although one is a bit battered and the outer blue plate has fallen off.
Have you looked at Shop-Vac? They make multiple sizes, the small wing being a cute 1 gallon (3.7 liters) desk version: https://www.shopvac.com/products/shop-vac%C2%AE-1-gallon-1-0...
Could be a variety of Henry: https://www.myhenry.com/ However it looks like the wheels in th piccie are outside the major plan view of the body, so perhaps not.
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