The earliest Roman gladiator games have been dated to 264 BC. Archaeologists first discovered the cemetery in 1993. Fighters depicted on the tombstones gave it away as a burial ground for gladiators.

The discovery of a gladiator graveyard has led to a look back in time to how gladiators lived, fought, and died. The graveyard was found in Ephesus, Turkey, which used to be a major city in ancient civilizations.

Like our sport heroes today, gladiators were celebrated in a number of ways. They were featured on oil lamps, mosaics and graffiti art.

The graveyard possesses the answers to unsolved questions that researchers have had for some time. Particularly, how did the gladiators make it out of the ring alive?

Thousands upon thousands of bones have been uncovered as well as three gravestones. Pathologists have spent years analyzing what the gladiators left behind. Their age, injuries and cause of death. They found that most of the remains were between 20 and 30 years of age at the time of death. Collectively 67 individuals have been found at the site.

Their findings have concluded that these gladiators took part in organized fights under the scope of a referee. Other evidence points out that if the defeated gladiator did not display skill or believe it or not, cowardice, people would want him killed.

The doomed gladiator would have to die in a "manly" fashion, by not moving whatsoever as he received a blow to the head. However, if a gladiator lived three years of fighting he would be granted his freedom from the ring. Still, the likelihood of a gladiator surviving such feats was slim with one in three chances of dying each time they fought.

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Gladiators' Graveyard Discovered | BBC News