Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a remarkable cache of 24 Etruscan and Roman bronze statues in the remains of an ancient religious sanctuary, hailing the find as the most important of its kind in fifty years.
The treasure trove includes tiny bronze replicas of human body parts, thrown into the thermal waters of the sanctuary by people suffering from illnesses and hoping to be healed.
The objects, found during a digging campaign between June and October, date from between the second century BC and the first century AD.
The importance of the discovery is being likened to that of the Riace Bronzes, two full-sized, naked Greek warrior figures which were found on the seabed off the coast of Calabria in southern Italy in 1972.
The sanctuary, near the village of San Casciano dei Bagni in Tuscany, was a place of worship from the second century BC, first for the Etruscans and then the Romans, who conquered Etruscan lands and incorporated them into their burgeoning empire.
It was built around a hot spring in a part of Tuscany which to this day boasts natural spas where Italians flock to immerse themselves in thermal waters.
The statues and objects would have been deliberately tossed into the water and have been preserved over the centuries by the thick mud at the bottom of stone-walled pools.
The tiny bronze body parts include representations of lungs, hearts, intestines and livers, offered to the gods by people who prayed for recuperation and healing. “It’s a unique find, the most important discovery of bronzes for 50 years,” Emanuele Mariotti, the director of the archaeological site, told The Telegraph.
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