Credit: Ministry of Culture/Reuters
(Reuters) --
Italian archaeologists have discovered more than two dozen beautifully preserved bronze statues dating back to Roman times in a thermal bath in Tuscany, in what experts say is a stunning find.
The statues were discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the province of Siena, about 100 miles north of Rome, where archaeologists have been exploring the muddy ruins of an ancient bathhouse since 2019. .
"It is a very significant and exceptional find," Jacopo Tabolli, an assistant professor at the University for Foreigners in Siena, who is coordinating the excavation, said Tuesday.
Massimo Osanna, a senior official at the Ministry of Culture, called it one of the most remarkable discoveries "in the history of the ancient Mediterranean" and the most important since the Riace Bronzes, a giant pair of ancient Greek warriors, were dug out of the sea. sea off the tip of Italy, in 1972.
A newly discovered 2,300-year-old bronze statue lies on the ground in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy.
Credit: Ministry of Culture/Reuters
Tabolli said the statues, depicting Hygieia, Apollo and other Greco-Roman divinities, used to adorn a sanctuary before being immersed in hot springs, in a sort of ritual, "probably around the first century."
"You offer them to the water because you hope the water will give you something back," he said of the ritual.
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conflict time
Most of the statues date from between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century BC, a period of "great transformation in ancient Tuscany" from Etruscan to Roman domination, the Culture Ministry said in a statement.
It was a "time of great conflict" and "cultural osmosis", in which the sanctuary of the Great Baths of San Casciano represented a "unique refuge of multicultural and multilingual peace, surrounded by political instability and war", the Ministry said.
A newly discovered 2,300-year-old bronze statue lies on the ground in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy.
Credit: Ministry of Culture/Reuters
The statues were covered in nearly 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins, and the hot, muddy waters of San Casciano helped preserve them "almost like the day they were submerged," Tabolli said.
The archaeologist said his team had recovered 24 large statues, plus several smaller statuettes, noting that it was unusual for them to be made of bronze, rather than terracotta.
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Tabolli said this suggested they came from what he called an elite settlement, where archaeologists also found "wonderful inscriptions in Etruscan and Latin" mentioning the names of powerful local families, the ministry statement added.
According to the Italian Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, the "exceptional discovery...confirms, once again, that Italy is a country of immense and unique treasures."
The ministry said the statues had been taken to a restoration lab in nearby Grosseto, but would be put on display in a new museum in San Casciano.
SculptureItaly
