If you were a teen at the turn of the century you may have gone to watch the film Gladiator at the movie theater, but if you were a kid growing up in Italy 2,000 years ago, you may have seen the real thing. New drawings recently unearthed at the famed Pompeii archeological site, where mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2 millennia ago, reveal young children may have been witness to the famed arena fights.
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00:00If you were a teen at the turn of the century, you may have gone to the theater to watch
00:07the film Gladiator, but if you were a kid growing up in Italy 2000 years ago, you may
00:11have seen the real thing.
00:13These drawings were recently unearthed at the famed Pompeii archaeological site, where
00:18Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly two millennia ago.
00:21The eruption turned the village into a time capsule, preserving much of the town, even
00:25many of its inhabitants, under a layer of ash.
00:28And these are some recently excavated drawings that appear to show a gladiatorial fight,
00:32and experts say they were likely made by a child.
00:35This is the director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, Gabriel Zuchatrigl.
00:40According to him and a team of psychologists, the images depicted here, which include gladiators
00:44and hunters, were created after seeing such an event, drawn by a child of likely six or
00:49seven years old.
00:51With the park's director adding,
00:52We understand that here in Pompeii, even children of tender ages were exposed to an extreme
00:57form of violence between humans, and between humans and animals, in the sand in the amphitheater
01:02of the ancient city.