Bite marks discovered on the skeleton of a gladiator in Roman-era England suggest the man faced off with a lion in the arena, according to a new study.

A discovery in an English garden led to the first direct evidence that man fought beast to entertain the subjects of the Roman Empire.

Skeletal remains in a Roman burial ground in northern England were found to have lesions that looked suspiciously like bite marks. Modern forensic techniques found that the teeth behind the marks probably belonged to a large feline, and the part of the skeleton that had been in the creature’s mouth further indicated it must have been a lion.