This week in the resort town of San Casciano dei Bagni in Tuscany, Italy, a team of archaeologists discovered two dozen ancient bronze statues that are over 2,000 years old. Thanks to the silty soil and warm thermal waters, ancient works of art have been perfectly preserved.
Historic discovery
Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano speaks of a “treasure” and, according to experts, this is indeed a sensational find. “The discovery will go down in history,” archaeologist Jacopo Tabolli told the German agency dpa.
Some of the statues are almost a meter high, but they are so well preserved that Etruscan and Latin inscriptions are visible on them, for example, the names of influential Etruscan families. Thanks to these inscriptions, scholars have been able to determine that the statues may date from between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century BC. and the 1st century AD, when the Etruscans had great influence in the territory of modern northwestern Italy.
The mysterious ancestors of the Romans
The first advanced civilization in what is now Italy was established by the Etruscans long before the Romans and emerged between the 9th and 1st centuries BC, peaking between the 6th and 5th centuries BC. The Etruscans ruled at the heart of the future empire, uniting small villages on the seven hills of Rome into a civilized city.
Most of the modern information about the Etruscans is based on Roman or Greek sources. At the same time, the origin of this ancient people has not yet been precisely established. There are many versions, the most relevant of which is based on a genetic analysis conducted by German scientists from the Max Planck Institute, the University of Tübingen and their colleagues from the University of Florence. As a result of the studypublished in 2021, proved that the DNA of the ancient Etruscans is similar to that of other local Italic populations.
What is known for certain is that the Etruscans influenced the Romans in a variety of ways, from building technology and architecture to fashion and ritual. This explains why the statues found in Tuscany depict Greek gods: for example, the sun god Apollo and the goddess of health, Hygieia. The fact is that the beliefs of the Etruscans were strongly influenced by Greek mythology.
Unique find
According to the Italian Ministry of Culture, the sanctuary where the statues were found was built during the Etruscan period and expanded under the Romans. “Here in Tuscany, the largest number of bronze statues from the Etruscan and Roman periods ever found have been discovered. This is one of the most important archaeological finds of the entire Mediterranean region,” Jacopo Tabolli told AFP.
Tabolli, an expert on the Etruscan period, is leading the excavations that have been going on since 2019 at the ruins of the ancient bath complex where the statues were found. According to him, the find is of particular importance, because “until now, this period was characterized by statues made of terracotta (a type of unglazed ceramics. – Ord.)”.
Treasures comparable to the statues of the “Warriors of Riace”
In addition to the statues, about 5,000 gold, silver and bronze coins were found during the three-year excavations. Experts compare the find with the famous bronze figures of the Riace Warriors, one of the most important discoveries in archeology. Then, in 1972, two statues of the 5th century BC were discovered in the sea off the coast of Calabria at a depth of only 8 meters. They are among the few surviving life-size ancient Greek bronze statues from the classical period.
“This is certainly one of the most important bronze finds in the history of the ancient Mediterranean,” emphasizes Massimo Osanna, director of the State Museums of Italy under the Ministry of Culture of the country, “and the most important since the discovery of the bronze twin statues of Riace.” Finds from Tuscany will become the central element of the exhibition of the new museum and archaeological park in the future.
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