A treasure trove of sculptures recasts Etruscan-Roman history

Nov. 8 () –

More than 20 bronze statues in perfect conditionvotive offerings and other objects, as well as 5,000 gold, silver and bronze coins, have been recovered in an Etruscan-Roman sanctuary in Siena (Italy)

Started in 2019, the excavation promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the University for Foreigners of Siena led, in the first weeks of October, to “a discovery that will rewrite history and on which more than 60 experts from around the world are already working”, declares the etruscologist in charge of the excavation, Professor Jacopo Tabolli.

For this expert, 50 years after the discovery in 1972 of the famous “Riace bronzes”, the history of the ancient bronze statues of the Etruscan and Roman era is rewritten in this sanctuary with ancient thermal baths of Bagno Grande, in the town of San Casciano dei Bagni.

The one on the Tuscan site is the largest deposit of bronze statues from the Etruscan and Roman era ever discovered in ancient Italy and one of the most significant in the entire Mediterranean: “unparalleled above all because, until now, mainly terracotta statues from this era”, explains the Italian Ministry of Culture in a statement.

The bronzes of San Casciano represent the deities venerated in the sacred place, along with the organs and anatomical parts for which the healing intervention of the divinity was requested through the thermal waters. In recent weeks, effigies of Hygieia and Apollo have emerged from the hot mud, as well as a bronze reminiscent of the famous Arringatore, discovered in Perugia and in the historical collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Florence.

The exceptional state of conservation of the statues inside the hot springs also it has allowed to preserve the wonderful inscriptions in Etruscan and Latin that were engraved before its creation. The inscriptions contain the names of powerful Etruscan families from the territory of Inner Etruria, from the Velimna of Perugia to the Marcni known in the countryside of Siena. Along with name days and dedications in Etruscan, we find inscriptions in Latin, which also mention the aquae calidae, the hot springs of Bagno Grande, where the statues were placed.

Most of these masterpieces of antiquity date back to the 2nd century BC. and the 1st century AD, a historical period of important transformations in ancient Tuscany, in the passage between Etruscans and Romans.

At this time of great conflicts between Rome and the Etruscan cities, but also of struggles in the social fabric of the city, the noble Etruscan families in the sanctuary of Bagno Grande, in a phase in which the expansion of Rome also supposes an osmosis culture, they dedicated the statues to the sacred water. An absolutely unique multicultural and multilingual context of peace, surrounded by political instability and war.