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At this year’s annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, Simon James of Leicester University presented a tantalizing scenario behind one of history’s most frigid of cold cases. At a dig at the city of Dura-Europos, Syria the 1930s, a group of about 20 Roman soldiers was found in a tunnel below the Dura garrison still completely fitted with their weapons and armor. Until now, not much had been know about how a group of Roman soldiers met their death below the earth.
The battle at Dura has been reconstructed solely using archaeological evidence as no texts of the conflict exist. Around 256 AD, the Romans had control of Dura when it was laid to siege by a group of Persians known as the Sasanian. While excavation of the site began in the 1920s, it is recent findings that have finally shed light onto the mystery behind the discovery of Roman soldiers underground.
History was certain on this point: the Persians were attempting to breach the walls of the Roman stronghold by tunneling beneath them. The Romans, in turn, began to create counter-tunnels in an attempt to stave the attack. When the two tunnels met, it is now thought that the Romans were in for a gruesome and unexpected surprise. The Persians burned bitumen and sulfur crystals in the tunnel, substances that, when ignited, created a terrible smoke.
James described the Persian tactic: “The Persians will have heard the Romans tunneling and prepared a nasty surprise for them. I think the [Persians] placed braziers and bellows in their gallery, and when the Romans broke through, added the chemicals and pumped choking clouds into the Roman tunnel. The Roman assault party were unconscious in seconds, dead in minutes. Use of such smoke generators in siege-mines is actually mentioned in classical texts, and it is clear from the archaeological evidence at Dura that the Sasanian Persians were as knowledgeable in siege warfare as the Romans; they surely knew of this grim tactic.” [Science Daily]
While the tunnel tactic failed to bring down the walls, Persians did managed to run out the Romans, and the city was abandoned forever. However, the tunnels may very well be evidence of the original form of chemical warfare, and it seems that it was very effective. A diagram of the setup can be found in the BBC article.
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