Newly discovered Bronze statues of San Casciano

Hey, I'm here today. I've come all the way to Tuscany. I'm here in San Casciano dei Bagni, and it's a place where people still bathe. It goes all the way back thousands of years. It goes back to the ancient Romans and before. And it's in this neighborhood. You have a phenomenal discovery, one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the past several decades. So let's take a look at the site and let's take a look at the discoveries. Discoveries are so important. They've allowed it to be displayed inside Palazzo Quirinale, the presidential palace of Italy. And this exhibition is ongoing to the end of December. The gods return. Here is a lovely presentation of the work that's been found recently. You're allowed to get up close and personal with these new discoveries almost as soon as they've been unearthed. It's an extraordinary opportunity. Inside the Courtyard of Honor, this is where heads of state will arrive and be greeted by the president of Italy. And it's a place that you can walk through and explore a little bit on your way to the exhibition with so much history going back to the 16th century. Here is a great elliptical staircase, beautiful, dedicated to about 1583 on your way to the exhibition. Thermal Springs are located in the valley of San Casciano along the Elbella River. They were known as the Fontes Clusini already from the 6th century BC. And there were anatomic bronze figurines dedicated as early as the 3rd century BC. And by 89 BC, Cusi received Roman citizenship. Now the 40 springs in the area were occupied with many sanctuaries. And already the Medici family built a portico in 1575 on top of the Etruscan Roman sanctuary. In the vicinity, altars dedicated to Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia were found as well as a bathing Aphrodite statue. The first bronze deposit was found in 2004 that was very noteworthy. This is an excavation, a collaboration between the University Per Stranieri di Siena, the Fondazione Friends of Florence, and the Archaeological Superintendency. But the really great discovery took place from 2020 to 2022. Exceptional discoveries in a single large travertine line pool with dedications going back to the 3rd BC to the 1st century AD that were Etruscan. And then that pool was enlarged by Tiberius and remained in use until the 4th century AD. Where I'm sitting is a place where the water still flows, bathers still come. You have a nice warm temperature of this water emanating from the side of the hill, just as it's done for thousands and thousands of years. Anyone can come free of charge to bathe in these waters. So we want to think about the healing, the restorative properties of this water, the minerals, the content that's given from Mother Earth. It was bestowed upon the ancients. It's bestowed upon us today if we bring a bathing suit. Digging down three meters into the central pool, the archaeologists came across a series of packed tiles. And underneath it, there was this bronze thunderbolt, indicating that this was a fulgor conditum, or a bidental, a place made sacred having been struck by lightning. And as a result, the interpretation from Etruscan priests, experts in reading lightning strikes, determined that a series of bronze statues in the sanctuary had to be ritually buried here. Therein begins an investigation of this great discovery of a series of bronze statues, many with their own inscriptions incised in them. You can admire the scale of these statues. Each one's about three feet in height, three Roman feet, which is a noble measurement according to Pliny the Elder. And each of these statues has its own inscription incised directly on it. Let's start with the And her inscription reads, And this one reads, So how can we interpret this dedication? It's this very statue that's dedicated, but also a series of legs, made of bronze as well we imagine, that represent the foot and then the length of the leg up to the groin, all dedicated to the hot spring of the nymph, the goddess, Here we have a beautiful Hellenistic style statue of Apollo, who's pulling his bow. He's a little off balance. He's in a dynamic pose. And we have to think of him also as a god of healing, an appropriate deity for this sanctuary. And he was found next to a scalpel and also this, this votive offering of internal organs with this inscription down below. And it reads, So the interpretation is that Apollo is a god of healing. The scalpel also indicates that physicians were on location and ultimately you could get whatever ailed you cured by prayer and by doctors. Here we have two portrait heads of a man and a woman, beautifully rendered. The woman doesn't have an inscription, but the male portrait does. Let's take a look. It's written in Etruscan and it reads, And here we have this togate figure, which is an absolute masterpiece. And when we look at the length of the toga, it's quite short and the little boots beautifully rendered. We have a figure that is very similar to the Etruscan Roman Oringatore figure of about a hundred BC. So we see the influence of the Romans. We see the influence of the Etruscans and the only inscription we have on it are these few initials. We have further a series of smaller votive offerings, various figures in various poses, many with inscriptions. And then of course we have anatomical pieces, body parts, legs, feet, hands, eyes, breasts, and ears. Let's take a look at some of the choice pieces like this young figure, this child with a bulla protective amulet inscribed with an inscription on his leg. Here we have a female figure. And what is she holding in her hands? They've been interpreted as eels, possibly as an offering. Here's a lizard. And of course we have many figurines of men and women. And we have body parts like this foot that we see is dedicated to Fortuna Primigenia. We also have fruits such as pine cones, plum pits, peach pits, and even branches of trees. There's a great variety of dedications. There's also a coin hoard. Up to 5,000 coins were found. Here is a stash of 200 and as we can see they date to the imperial time. We a fascinating treasure trove in this sanctuary. The discoveries continue to be made. The excavation is ongoing. It's so exciting to see these great discoveries immediately on display for the public free of charge in Palazzo Quirinale. This exhibition is open to the end of December. We recommend that you see it. And once again, please subscribe and like this video. We have so many more exhibitions and sites to see with you on Ancient Rome Live.