Beautifully preserved bronze statues from ancient Rome were discovered in Italy.

 

 

24 wonderfully preserved bronze statues from the ancient Roman era were discovered in Tuscany by Italian archaeologists.

The statues were found in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop village in the province of Siena, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of the capital Rome, beneath the filthy ruins of an ancient bathhouse.

The statues, which depict Hygieia, Apollo, and other Greco-Roman deities, are estimated to be 2,300 years old.

The find, according to one expert, “may change history.”

The majority of the statues, along with about 6,000 bronze, silver, and gold coins, date from the second century BC to the first century AD. They were discovered submerged beneath the baths. The time period was one of “vast transformation in ancient Tuscany” as the area transitioned from Etruscan to Roman rule, the Italian culture ministry said

Jacopo Tabolli, an assistant professor from the University for Foreigners in Siena who leads the dig, suggested that the statues had been immersed in thermal waters in a sort of ritual.

“You give to the water because you hope that the water gives something back to you,” he observed.

 

The statues, which were preserved by the water, will be taken to a restoration laboratory in nearby Grosseto, before eventually being put on display in a new museum in San Casciano.

Massimo Osanna, director general of Italy’s state museums, said the discovery was the most important since the Riace Bronzes and “certainly one of the most significant bronze finds ever made in the history of the ancient Mediterranean”. The Riace Bronzes – discovered in 1972 – depict a pair of ancient warriors. They are believed to date back to around 460-450 BC