Posted on 11/09/2022 11:44:58 AM PST by Red Badger
Italian archaeologists have unearthed 24 beautifully preserved bronze statues in Tuscany believed to date back to ancient Roman times.
The statues were discovered under the muddy ruins of an ancient bathhouse in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the Siena province, about 160km (100 miles) north of the capital Rome.
Depicting Hygieia, Apollo and other Greco-Roman gods, the figures are said to be around 2,300 years old.
One expert said the find could "rewrite history".
Most of the statues - which were found submerged beneath the baths alongside around 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins - date to between the 2nd Century BC and the 1st Century AD. The era marked a period of "great 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 460-450BC.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
More pics at link.......................
BBC CAN'T Post...............
PinGGG!..................
Back when men were still presumably men and women were still presumably women.
As the one cartoon about the Klondike observed: a darn good arrangement.
At least they got BC and AD right..
How ancient Romans and Greeks made bronze statues...
https://aleteia.org/2017/03/21/how-were-bronze-statues-made-in-greek-and-roman-times/
The technical skill demonstrated by the craftsmen of this
era in lost wax casting of such volumes of Bronze is
simply amazing.
Some of those statues look like the body casts from Pompeii !
Yeah l just cringe when l see that BCE crap
A couple of History Channel shows I stopped watching because of that (BCE and CE).
Thanks, sent this to my brother, he has worked on digs in Italy. It’s great how they keep finding such things.
My father was born there and used to fill his canteen from a spring on the side of a little hill when he was a boy working the fields. 25 years after he came to America, the “spring” was discovered to be a fountain and an entire city was excavated at the site. They have little museum full of articles there too. We visited it when Dad was still alive and he got to fill a water bottle from the fountain. It was a very cool moment for us.
So what happened to the coins?
Not a lot of interest in Roman coins, they are common..............
“Not a lot of interest in Roman coins, they are common..............”
Yeah. Everyone knows that ancient Roman gold and silver coins have no value. :-)
You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all...........
Well, the Romans did move on to Elgalabalus in the 3rd century.
Progress!/s
Take those suckers to the pawn shop. Get about $Tree Fity.
One thing you can be sure of, there were no homosexuals in ancient Rome.
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