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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...

Rare items believed to have been used as votive offerings to the gods -- including so-called fertility statuettes shaped like a phallus, a womb and a pair of breasts -- have been dug out from the site's mud. So have 3,000 ancient coins, 700 of which are freshly minted -- and still shiny. In the second century AD, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Carus had the coins thrown into the baths to honor gods watching over his health, as well as that of all Romans traveling to San Casciano for thermal treatment...During Etruscan and Roman times, womb-shaped votive offerings were usually...