One major 2022 find in Italy offered new insights into European history

This is the story of the bronze statues of Casciano dei Bagni
Statues of the Romans
Perfectly preserved in thermal baths
Uncovering the past since 2019
6000 bronze, silver, and coins found!
The 24 statues that will change history
A groundbreaking discovery
Very significant
The largest find of its kind from the era
A time of great upheaval
An Etruscan cultural genocide
A place of peace surrounded by war
Greek gods and goddesses
Engraved by the wealthy
A place to pray together
The statues were part of a religious ritual
How did Rome and the Etruscans interact?
Immense and unique
Taken for restoration
This is the story of the bronze statues of Casciano dei Bagni

Back in 2022, a group of Italian archeologists combing through the site of an ancient Roman thermal bath just outside of today's Siena made an amazing discovery that promised to give the world new insight into early European history.

Statues of the Romans

Scattered among the dirt of the ruins were two dozen stunningly preserved statutes that had the potential to rewrite everything we once knew about the expansion of early Rome into the Italian peninsula and its relationships with the cultures that surrounded it.

Photo by Facebook @Il Santuario Ritrovato - San Casciano dei Bagni

Perfectly preserved in thermal baths

The statues were discovered in a group of thermal baths at the hilltop town San Casciano dei Bagni, roughly 100 miles north of Rome. 

Uncovering the past since 2019

Archeologists had been exploring the muddy ruins of an ancient bathhouse at Casciano dei Bagni since 2019 but it wasn't until late into 2022 that they started to uncover fragments of the area's ancient past. 

6000 bronze, silver, and coins found!

The excavation has yielded lots of small fragments of statues as well as a large cache of thousands of coins and other culturally significant artifacts to date, and excavations are still ongoing. 

The 24 statues that will change history

But the truly astonishing find has been that of 24 perfectly preserved bronze statues that date back some 2300 years into the past. 

A groundbreaking discovery

The discovery of the statues in San Casciano dei Bagni is nothing short of groundbreaking according to some experts because they have changed what we thought we knew about ancient Etruscan civilization and how they interacted with the growing Roman Republic. 

Very significant

Jacopo Tabolli, an assistant professor from the Università per Stranieri di Siena, said, “It is a very significant, exceptional finding.”

The largest find of its kind from the era

“[It is] the largest deposit of bronze statues of the Etruscan and Roman age ever discovered in Italy and one of the most significant in the whole Mediterranean,” Tabolli added in a statement he made to the public. 

Photo by Facebook @rapplerdotcom

 

 

A time of great upheaval

The statues dated between the first and second centuries B.C.E., which was a time of great upheaval on the Italian peninsula.

Photo by Facebook @rapplerdotcom

An Etruscan cultural genocide

The transition from Etruscan hegemony to Roman Republican rule was taking place at that time and it was a process that many experts believe involved a concentrated Roman effort to minimize, bury, or destroy an Etruscan culture. 

Photo by Facebook @rapplerdotcom

A place of peace surrounded by war

Italy’s Culture Ministry called the period one of “great conflict” and “cultural osmosis,” and San Casciano dei Bagni represented a “unique multicultural and multilingual haven of peace, surrounded by political instability and war.”

Photo by Facebook @rapplerdotcom

Greek gods and goddesses

Among the statues found were likenesses of the Greek goddess Hygieia, the Greek god Apollo, and several other Greco-Roman gods. 

Engraved by the wealthy

Some of the statues bore Etruscan inscriptions and were engraved with the names of prominent and wealthy Etruscan families. 

A place to pray together

“This discovery rewrites the history of ancient art,” Tabolli adds. “Here, Etruscans and Romans prayed together.”

The statues were part of a religious ritual

Tabolli believes the statues were originally immersed in San Casciano dei Bagni’s thermal pools as some form of ritual, telling Reuters’ Alvise Armelli that you “give to the water because you hope that the water gives something back to you.”

How did Rome and the Etruscans interact?

While Tabolli couldn't say he knew for sure why the statues were submerged at San Casciano dei Bagni, the find has allowed today’s archaeologists and historians to make new inferences about how Italy’s two greatest ancient civilizations interacted. 

Immense and unique

Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano noted that the “exceptional discovery ... confirms once again that Italy is a country of immense and unique treasures.”

 

Taken for restoration

The statues were taken to Grosseto for restoration and will eventually be put on display in a museum in San Casciano dei Bagni. 

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