Hundreds of weapons from the Roman era have been unearthed in a park in a city located in southeastern France.
These findings are thought to be remnants of the Battle of Lyon, which occurred on February 19 in the year 197 A.D., and is considered of the biggest battles between two Roman armies.
Found beneath the ground in Lyon's Clos de la Visitation park, the ancient treasure trove includes arrowheads, pieces of weaponry and military equipment, and even decapitated human heads, French newspaper Le Figaro reported.
Among the more than 350 items discovered, the archeologists also found bronze helmets, spearheads, swords and two siege grappling hooks.
This finding comes in the fifth year of study by students and archeologists, who flock to the site every summer to gather knowledge and find more relics from centuries ago.
"It's great to be in the field, it's a welcome change from theory. For me it's wonderful, I'm on my first site," Caroline Lefèvre, a student at the University of Lyon 2, told local news outlet Lyon Capitale, in French.
The current group of students took over from the June team and began work on July 3. This involved "clearing, cleaning, discovery of the land to appropriate it." Lefèvre told the outlet that she hopes to find "amphorae, pottery, to also understand the history of Lyon. As soon as we find an object, we wonder about its history".
The site was also thought to be an ancient Roman military complex. The area being explored by this year's students is believed to be a warehouse that stored weapons, making it a prime location to find interesting relics from the battle.
"Levels of these barracks are linked to the famous battle of Lyon of February 19, 197, which brought Septimius Severus to the Empire," Benjamin Clément, professor and researcher at the University of Franche-Comté and director of these excavations, told Lyon Capitale.
The Battle of Lyon, also known as the Battle of Lugdunum, occurred between the armies of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus and the Roman usurper Clodius Albinus. Both armies' troops are said to have numbered up to 300,000 in total. The battle was won by Severus, who ended up cutting off Albinus's head.
These excavations help researchers to understand "the chronology of the barracks of the urban cohort, its form and its function," Clément said.
"We want to understand its architectural organization, because it is unprecedented to study barracks in the city, we want to see how the legionnaires lived, their housing, their production and storage spaces."
Another fascinating discovery made over the past few years at the site includes small good-luck charms.
"Small bronze statuettes which belong to the domestic altar of legionnaires with a statuette of the goddess Fortune, the goddess of luck which the legionnaires need in battle," Clément said.
Next year, there will be no excavations, however, as the researchers hope to use the summer to study all the findings from the site, and publish research papers on the relics.
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