History-changing statues spent 2,000 years in mud
ALMOST perfectly preserved, these 2,300-year-old bronze statues are among 24 excavated from the mud beneath ancient baths in Tuscany.
Italian experts say the amazing find, which included several smaller statuettes and nearly 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins, could rewrite history.
This is because it sheds new light on the region’s transition from Etruscan civilisation to control by the Roman Empire.
The statues, which would have been presented to the gods as votive offerings, date from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD and were discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town south of Siena. The hot muddy waters helped preserve them ‘almost like as on the day they were immersed’, said archaeologist Jacopo Tabolli.
The trove shows that while wars raged outside the spa and shrine, Dr Tabolli said, ‘inside the sanctuary the great elite Etruscan and Roman families prayed together in a context of peace surrounded by conflict’.