In what Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s new culture minister, has called “an amazing find, which demonstrates once more that Italy is a country of great and unique treasures,” more than 20 wonderfully well-preserved ancient Roman bronzes have been found in Tuscany.
24 big sculptures, a few statuettes, and about 5,000 bronze, silver, and gold coins make up the horde. The entire collection was made between the second century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., a time of conflict and cultural change as the area passed from Etruscan to Roman administration.
The artifacts were discovered by archaeologists while conducting excavations at San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the province of Siena famous for its historic hot spas. The amazing state in which the objects were found, which was kept by the mud, is what makes the discovery truly spectacular. It should be noted that the region was formerly only recognized for its terracotta figures.
According to Reuters, the bronzes, which feature representations of Greek gods like Hygieia and Apollo, were probably used as decorations for a bathhouse and may have been ceremonially tossed into the warm waters.
“You give to the water because you hope that the water gives back to you,” suggested Jacopo Tabolli, a professor from the University for Foreigners in Siena who coordinated the dig.
Also found were sculptures of organs and other anatomical parts that presumably represent some of the ailments for which visitors to the baths sought treatment.
Italy’s director general of museums, Massimo Osanna, said it is “certainly one of the most significant discoveries of bronzes ever in the history of the ancient Mediterranean” and compared it with retrieving the life-size Riace Bronzes from the sea in 1972.
The Tuscany municipality, Tabolli, and the ministry of culture all provided support for the excavation, which got underway in 2019. It took the combined efforts of archaeologists, geologists, archaeobotanists, and specialists in epigraphy and numismatics to make the astounding discovery.
The restoration-in-progress works will soon be on public exhibit in a new museum in San Casciano. In the town, a new archaeological park will debut.
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