Archaeologists in Italy have discovered more than two dozen beautifully preserved bronze statues dating back to ancient Roman times at thermal baths in Tuscany, in what experts are hailing as a shocking find. The statues were discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the province of Siena, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Rome, where archaeologists have been exploring the muddy ruins of an ancient bath since 2019. “It’s a very important, extraordinary find,” Jacopo Tabolli, an assistant professor at the University for Foreigners in Siena who is coordinating the excavation, told Reuters on Tuesday. Massimo Osanna, a top culture ministry official, 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 recovered from the sea. toe of Italy in 1972. A newly discovered 2,300-year-old bronze statue lies in the ground in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. Credit: Ministry of Culture / Reuters Tabolli said the statues, depicting Hygieia, Apollo and other Greco-Roman deities, used to adorn a sanctuary before being immersed in healing waters, in some kind of ritual, “probably around the 1st century AD”. “You give to the water because you hope the water will give you something back,” he said of the ritual.
Clash time
Most of the statues date between the 2nd century BC. and the 1st century AD, a period of “great transformation in ancient Tuscany” as it transitioned from Etruscan to Roman rule, the Ministry of Culture said in a statement. It was a “time of great conflict” and “cultural osmosis”, in which the refuge of the Great Bath of San Cassiano represented a “unique multicultural and multilingual refuge of peace, surrounded by political instability and war”, the ministry said. A newly discovered 2,300-year-old bronze statue lies in the ground in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. Credit: Ministry of Culture / Reuters The statues were covered by nearly 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins, and San Casciano’s warm, muddy waters helped preserve them “almost as they were the day they sank,” Tabolli said. The archaeologist said his team had found 24 large statues, plus several smaller statuettes, and noted that it was unusual that they were made of bronze rather than terracotta. Tabolli said this suggests they came from what he called an elite settlement, where archaeologists also found “magnificent inscriptions in Etruscan and Latin” citing names of powerful local families, the ministry’s statement added. According to Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, the “extraordinary discovery… confirms once again that Italy is a country of enormous and unique treasures.” The ministry said the statues have been taken to a restoration workshop in nearby Grosseto, but will eventually be displayed in a new museum in San Cassiano.
