ROME (Reuters) – Italian archaeologists have unearthed more than 20 well-preserved bronze statues from Roman times at thermal baths in Tuscany, what experts call an “exceptional” find.
The statues were discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the province of Siena, about 160 km north of Rome, where archaeologists have been excavating the ruins of an ancient spa establishment since 2019.
“It’s a very significant, exceptional find,” Jacopo Tabolli, assistant professor at the University for Foreigners of Siena, who is coordinating the excavations, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Massimo Osanna, a senior culture ministry official, said the find was one of the most remarkable “in the history of the ancient Mediterranean” and the most important since the Riace bronzes, discovered in 1972.
Jacopo Tabolli said the statues, representing Hygieia, Apollo and other Greco-Roman deities, adorned a sanctuary before being immersed in thermal waters, in a sort of ritual, “probably around the 1st century AD. VS.”.
The statues were covered with nearly 6,000 pieces of bronze, silver and gold, and the warm, muddy waters of San Casciano helped preserve them “almost like the day they were submerged”, said Jacopo Tabolli .
The archaeologist said his team had recovered 24 large statues, as well as several smaller statuettes, and noted that it was unusual that they were made of bronze, rather than terracotta.
According to the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, this “exceptional discovery (…) confirms once again that Italy is a country with immense and unique treasures”.
The ministry said the statues had been taken to a restoration laboratory in the nearby town of Grosseto and would be displayed in a new museum in San Casciano.
(Report Alvise Armellini, French version Augustin Turpin)