Italian archaeologists have unearthed 24 beautifully preserved bronze statues in Tuscany, Italy believed to date back to 2300 years ago in ancient Roma.
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.The statues depict Hygieia, Apollo and other Greco-Roman gods.
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 helped in the discovery, 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, the Italian culture ministry said.
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.
