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Director Jeremy Freeston joined in the fray...
Chat Ed : Welcome Jeremy
Jeremy Freeston : Hello everyone, what did you think?
Samantha Rubez : It was fantastic!!
Peter : Interesting
Chris Pyman : v. good program
Tom : yep really good - a true insight
Psycom : Why were no weapons found at the burial site? This sort of knocks the whole thing does it not?
k2killer : so I'm sure there were female gladiators, but wouldn't she have been buried with a sword?
Jeremy Freeston : There is absolutely no archaeological evidence for gladiator bodies before Great Dover Street Woman, whether buried with weapons or not, so it would be extraordinary to find weapons in Great Dover Street woman's burial. But that does not necessarily weaken the case for her having been a Gladiatrix.
Murphy : The term 'Gladiatrix' was used despite the Latin word 'gladiator' having no female form, in the same way judge in English does not, so why use it?
Jeremy Freeston : I'm not a Latin scholar but Kathleen Coleman from Harvard, our expert in the film, was perfectly happy for that term to be used to evoke the Gladiator of the feminine gender. She is one of the top experts on gladiators, irrespective of whether they are male or female.
Fulcrum : Are there any specific references to female gladiators in extant ancient classical texts?
Jeremy Freeston : There are several noted references to female gladiators in acknowledged classical texts. Most of them are clustered in the first century AD. In 11AD a law was passed that forbade free born females from under the age of 20 from appearing on stage or in the arena. 8 years later the law was changed to any men or women of senatorial or equestrian rank,
performing as actors or gladiators. There are several laws like this, which show how seriously the Romans considered the prospect of women fighting in the arena. The laws changed and adapted as new Emperors came to rule. Many of the references seem to cluster on the reign of Nero in the first century AD as we said in the programme.
ian lawton : the programmes did not make it crystal clear what exactly the evidence was for the remains being absolutely identified as that of a female skeleton. The piece of hip bone was used only to age the body and not to sex it. Where is the evidence to support a female burial??
Jeremy Freeston : When the bones of Great Dover Street woman were excavated, the Museum of London's osteo-archaeologist, Bill White, sexed the bones as definitely female using a large piece of pelvic bone. This and around 80% of the rest of the bone material from the burial is currently lost amongst 20,000 other contexts held by the Museum of London. However, this does not mean that Bill's analysis should be doubted whatsoever. It's a standard piece of archaeological practice that contexts are examined and interpreted scientifically, and then the remaining bone material is either placed in storage or re-buried. We are actually hugely lucky that the find was interpreted at all amongst 20,000 other contexts from the same time. This is a real triumph for the Museum of London. If you want to see them being able to interpret more finds like this, with more financial freedom, then why not offer the Museum of London your support. They, like every other
archaeological institution in the country, do a magnificent job despite financial constraints.
YSL : how did you first hear of the possibility of Gladiatrix?
Jeremy Freeston : We first heard about Great Dover Street woman from Nick Bateman at the Museum of London. He was working with Jenny Hall, also at the museum, in interpreting the find of the body of the woman within the wider context of Roman London.
rachael : Is there any evidence indicating how the Gladiator Girl died?
Jeremy Freeston : That is a really good question. That's exactly what I, and everyone else, wanted to know. The bones as examined by Jackie McKinley and Bill White, offered no apparent sign of injury, or even ill health. But that's not to say she could not, if she had been a Gladiator, have received a fatal injury in the arena, as obviously the fragments of bone that they
are working from are very small, and constitute only 20% of the full amount of bone material recovered from the grave. If the other 80% can be found, which I'm sure they will be eventually, then maybe experts like Jackie and Bill will be able to tell us even more about this woman's life and death.
Raven : Pagan burials usually contain grave goods which suggest lifestyle therefore wouldn't oil lamps/incense burners suggest Priestess?
Jeremy Freeston : Ooh "Raven" talking about Pagan Burials...?! In the film, I believe we presented a very fair case for the woman possibly not being a Gladiator, but being a follower, possibly even a Priestess of Isis, due to the kind of incense i.e. stone pine, and the images of Anubis who was the Egyptian God on the lamp. It's thought that in the first century there could have been a Temple to Isis in Southwark, and the religion is known to have been popular with women. But the religion is also known to have been popular with social outcasts, so as Jenny Hall said in the film, it's possible that GDS woman could have been a follower of Isis and a Gladiatrix: one doesn't necessarily rule out the other.
GladysTheGladimatrix : all the female Gladiators shown on the program were sexually attractive.. was this true to life .. or wishful thinking?
emmachops : Why did Channel 4 use the stereotype 'pretty' women as their supposed gladiators... surely in reality they would have been big butch, strong women who could handle themselves... not thin girls with long pretty hair!
Jeremy Freeston : Right OK... all of the women that you saw fighting in the reconstruction's are physically adept martial arts trained women. I cast the 8 women from 700 applicants (and one man - I don't know why he applied!) I would say that 90% of the women that applied were trained fighters irrespective of their looks. I went to great lengths to ensure that the women we employed did not send out the wrong signals by looking as if they had come from a models catalogue. The girls are all extremely gritty characters and the scenes were filmed in February in rain, hail and sleet and temps below zero degrees. The very fact that several of them are striking looking when fighting as female gladiators does nothing to contradict what we know about the gladiatorial arena. As Kathleen Coleman said in the film, we have well documented accounts of women in the
audience finding male gladiators sexually attractive, due to them being deliberately scantily clad. Knowing that there were definitely female gladiators, the logical assumption is that they too would have played upon their sexuality in the arena. For years scholars thought that female gladiators were some kind of titillation or side show to the main event, not 'real gladiators'.
But Kathleen Coleman showed in the film, by interpreting the Amazon and Achillea Stone Relief that women gladiators could very well have been every bit as well equipped, well trained and proficient as male gladiators.
Chat Ed : OK y'all - our half hour is up now, so last two questions now, thanks....
Nick_Uk : Where did you film all the combat scenes? Was it expensive to re-create?
Jeremy Freeston : The reconstruction scenes were all filmed at Optical Image Broadcast - a studio in the West Midlands. The people there were very accommodating and let me inconvenience them by building the London Amphitheatre on their car park. As far as I know it's the only time a British Amphitheatre has been reconstructed and the Museum of London
archaeologists were very interested and involved. What you saw on the screen was about one eighth of how the London Amphitheatre would have appeared.
Helen : Wow!
Jeremy Freeston : The small section of arena floor that our gladiators fought on was covered with 90 tonnes of sand and the set was two storeys high.
Tom : another programme perhaps or series Jeremy?
becca : are you going to do any more programs on this topic
Fulcrum : 'We want more . .we want more . . .!! (female gladiators that is!)
Jeremy Freeston : My next project is an incredibly indulgent holiday, but after that... who knows! Tom, if you are a producer with lots of money - let's talk!
Tricky : Good on ya!
Chat Ed : That's it! Thanks for coming, Jeremy, that was fantastic. And thanks for all your questions, folks! Hope you all enjoyed it!
Mike10 : very interesting film Jeremy, many thanks
ayesha : we love youuu jeremy
Fulcrum : Great programme all the same, I loved it . .keep up the good work Jer!!
Ruth : Nice one Jeremy
Julius : salute to jeremy :)
Stephen Prior : great stuff
Jeremy Freeston : Thanks everybody for your interest and letting me know what you thought.
SPQR : good work!
Jeremy Freeston : It's nice to know six months of hard work was worth the effort.
Jeremy Freeston leaves the room
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