Italian archaeologists announced on Tuesday the unprecedented discovery of more than twenty ancient bronze statues, extracted from the sludge of ancient sacred hot springs in Tuscany in an almost perfect state of preservation after two millennia.
The statues represent deities worshiped at the sanctuary of San Casciano dei Bagni established during the Etruscan period before being developed under the Romans, according to Italy's culture ministry.
Offerings as well as around 5,000 gold, silver and bronze coins were also unearthed during three years of excavations on this site, which attracts visitors for its thermal waters.
More than twenty ancient bronze statues have been discovered.
MINISTERO DELLA CULTURA / REUTERS
An unprecedented discovery
This is a discovery
"without parallel"
which will shed light on the period during which these bronzes were melted, located between -200 BC and 100 AD, welcomed Jacopo Tabolli, specialist in Etruscan age that drives the project.
"The Tuscan site houses the largest quantity of Etruscan and Roman bronze statues ever discovered in ancient Italy and is one of the most significant in the entire Mediterranean"
, adds Jacopo Tabolli.
"It's unprecedented, especially because so far it's mainly terracotta statues that are known from this period
," he said.
Those of San Casciano represent among others Apollo or Hygeus, goddess of health in Greek mythology.
The statues were extracted from the sludge of ancient sacred hot springs in Tuscany.
MINISTERO DELLA CULTURA / REUTERS
The statues represent divinities venerated at the sanctuary of San Casciano dei Bagni established during the Etruscan period.
MINISTERO DELLA CULTURA / REUTERS
The hot waters preserved the excavated pieces so well that Etruscan and Latin inscriptions are still visible, including the names of powerful Etruscan families.
"It is certainly one of the most significant discoveries of bronzes in the history of the ancient Mediterranean"
, also underlined Massimo Osanna, general director of the Italian state museums, and the most important since the warriors or bronzes of Riace, two Greek sculptures found in 1972 in southern Italy and dating from the 5th century BC. The bronzes discovered in Tuscany will be at the heart of a future new museum which will eventually be completed by an archaeological park.
