FRESHLY unearthed, 2,000-year-old, graffiti suggests brutal gladiator battles in Ancient Rome weren't just an adults sport.
Archeologists believe the drawings were made by children as young as five, suggesting they had attended bloody gladiator battles in the city.
The new charcoal wall drawings were found in the Insula dei Casti Amanti courtyard in Pompeii, the Italian city that fell victim to the eruption of Mount Vesuvias in 79 AD.
The simple etchings depict men with shields and spears fighting animals and each other.
"We came to the conclusion that in all likelihood the drawings of the gladiators and hunters were made on the basis of a direct vision and not from pictorial models," said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
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"Probably one or more of the children who played in this courtyard, among the kitchens, latrine and flowerbeds for growing vegetables, had witnessed fights in the amphitheatre.
"[They came] into contact with an extreme form of spectacularised violence, which could also include executions of criminals and slaves."
The scenes look rudimentary enough to have been drawn by a small child, with arms and legs that stem directly from the head.
They were also found quite close to the floor, at a child's height.
One tell tale sign is the outline of a small hand, which is about the size of a five-year-old's.
Experts believe children were drawing what they had witnessed in an effort to process the trauma of what they saw.
"Evidently it is an anthropological constant that is independent of artistic and cultural fashions," said Mr Zuchtriegel.
"The drawings show us the impact of this on the imagination of a young boy or girl, subject to the same developmental stages that are still found today."
The Insula dei Casti Amanti dig has also uncovered two skeletons, a man and a woman, who are thought to have been seeking shelter in a corridor together at the time of the eruption.
The Insula dei Casti Amanti, known as the Island of the Chaste Lovers, is composed of several houses and a bakery.
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