24 Etruscan and Roman bronze statues discovered in the ancient sacred baths at San Casciano dei Bagni in Tuscany. will be exhibited for the first time later this month. After several months of meticulous restoration in a laboratory in Grosseto, the bronzes will be on display at the Quirinal Palace in Rome on June 22.
Bronze pieces dating from between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD were left as offerings by visitors seeking cures for myriad ailments from the deities believed to inhabit the hot springs of the thermal baths. The petitioners left coins and figurines of body parts in need of healing. The people with the deepest pockets left larger statues of the sanctuary’s deities, including Hygieia and Apollo, as well as the afflicted.
The baths were abandoned and deliberately sealed with overturned columns in the 5th century, but century-old votive sculptures survive in the hot, muddy pools of the sanctuary. The ancient baths were rediscovered in 2019, and thousands of coins and offerings of body parts have been unearthed during excavations.
The full body statue was recovered from the pools during excavations in October 2022. This is the largest group of bronze sculptures from ancient Italy ever discovered, and the only one found in a single archaeological survey in its original context. The engraved inscriptions in both Etruscan and Latin are a unique corpus reflecting the transition from the decline of Etruscan influence in central Italy to the rise of Rome.
One of the most impressive finds was a bronze statue of a “skinny boy”, about 90 cm (35 in) tall, of a young Roman with obvious bone disease. The inscription bears his name as “Martius Grabillo”.
“When it emerged from the mud and was therefore partially covered, it looked like an athlete’s bronze… but when it was cleaned and examined closely, it became clear that it was a bronze man,” said Ada Salvi, a spokesman for the culture ministry. archaeologist of the Tuscan provinces of Siena, Grosseto and Arezzo.
The inscription also refers to another six or twelve statues left in the sanctuary by Marcius Grabillo. When excavations resume at the end of June, archaeologists hope to discover the rest of Grabillo’s collection.
Salvi said traces of more unusual offerings were also found, including eggshells, pine cones, peach and plum kernels, surgical instruments and a 2,000-year-old strand of curly hair.
“It opens a window into how the Romans and Etruscans felt the connection between health, religion and spirituality,” she said. “There is a whole world of meaning to be understood and explored.”
The statues will be on display at the Quirinal until 22 October. Afterwards, they will travel to other museums around the country before settling into their permanent home, a new museum housed in a 16th-century palace overlooking the pools.
