Between Etruscans and Romans, through the centuries, discovering the mysteries in the warm waters in the territory of the ancient city-state of Chiusi: the four unpublished finds in the exhibition "The Gods return. The bronzes of San Casciano" at the Mann tell new wonderful stories until June 30, after the first stop at the Quirinale, hosted in the new rooms on the third floor and inaugurated by the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano.
Iconic statue, and recently restored, is a female figure (2nd century BC) with hands open for prayer.
The person praying wears a chiton and a cloak, her face is framed by finely combed hair and long, elegant braids.
She was found among the offerings inside the sacred basin, in a group of statues that embraced a large oak trunk: she was placed upside down, as if wanting to direct her prayer towards the heart of the thermal spring.
The exhibition presents the extraordinary discoveries made in the summer of 2022 and the innovations that came to light in 2023 in the Etruscan and Roman thermal sanctuary of Bagno Grande.
The second unpublished is the base of a travertine donary, which exceptionally presents a 'bilingual' inscription, in Etruscan and Latin: '(I am the) God of the Source - (I am the) Hot Source', and the speaker is the divinity itself.
Numerous new bronzes have come from the 2023 excavation campaign, attributable to the religious and ritual practices of this spa spa: among these is probably a miniaturized kidney.
Finally, carved into a precious fragment of rock crystal there is a pendant in the shape of a small fish, a material believed to have numerous beneficial and medical properties, as well as being used as a burning lens to treat wounds.
Also interpreted as petrified ice, it was considered useful for preserving the sleep of the deceased and delaying the decay of the body.
Among the works in Naples, the marble statue of Aphrodite of the Doidalsas type, a Roman copy from the Trajan age (2nd century AD) from a Hellenistic original, found in the 16th century near the Doccia della Testa spring.
From the sacred basin of the Bagno Grande comes the bronze statue of Apollo shooting an arrow (100 BC).
Among the anatomical votives that reproduce parts of the human body there is also a bronze ear with the dedication to Primitive Fortune, and Roman coins offered in the imperial age.
The bronze lightning bolt refers to the ritual of buried lightning, according to which everything that was struck inside a temple had to be buried, as well as the lightning itself.
And this layer of bricks sealed the ancient Etruscan basin, paving the way for the monumentalization of the sanctuary in Roman times, during the reign of Tiberius (1st century AD).
"We have already proceeded with the purchase of a sixteenth-century building in the historic center of San Casciano and this will soon make it possible to open a museum which will become the new home of these finds. The firm desire to maintain the inseparable link of the discoveries with the territory it is a constitutive part of the project to enhance the identity of our local communities" underlined Sangiuliano.
The exhibition is curated by Massimo Osanna and Jacopo Tabolli.
The excavations (which will continue in the coming months) are under concession to the Municipality of Siena by the General Directorate of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape with the protection of the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Provinces of Siena, Grosseto and Arezzo, the scientific coordination is of the University for Foreigners of Siena.
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