Compiled  BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 11,431

Date uploaded in London – 10 November 2022                  

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan

 Xxx

Compiled from Western Newspapers

1500 YEARS AGO, CHRISTIANS TRIED TO COVER UP ANCIENT PAGAN GODS OF ETRUSCANS. BUT NOW THE PAGAN GODS ARE DISCOVERED AGAIN. ITALIAN HISTORY WILL BE REWRITEN.

A discovery that will rewrite history’: 24 exceptionally well preserved bronzes unearthed by archaeologists in Tuscany

The artefacts, found at ancient Roman baths, are among the most “significant bronzes ever produced in the history of the ancient Mediterranean”

Italian archaeologists announced today (8-11-2022) the discovery of 24 ancient Roman bronze statues in a thermal bath in San Casciano, a small town in the province of Siena, Tuscany.

The artefacts, dating from between the second century BC and the first century AD, are among the most “significant bronzes ever produced in the history of the ancient Mediterranean,” said Massimo Osanna, the director-general of Italy’s museums, which is part of the Ministry of Goods and Cultural Activities

Collection of bronzes dating back 2,300 years sheds light on transition between Etruscans and Romans

Among the well-preserved statues were five almost a metre in height. 

Tue 8 Nov 2022

The 24 partly submerged statues, which date back 2,300 years and have been hailed as the most significant find of their kind in 50 years, include a sleeping ephebe lying next to Hygeia, the goddess of health, with a snake wrapped around her arm.

Archaeologists came across the statues during excavations at the ancient spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, near Siena. The modern-day spa, which contains 42 hot springs, is close to the ancient site and is one of Italy’s most popular spa destinations.

The ancient Etruscan spa was developed by the Romans and visited by emperors including Augustus.

( Photograph: Jacopo Tabolli/Universita per Stranieri di Siena/EPA)

Close to the ephebe (an adolescent male, typically 17-18 years old) and Hygeia was a statue of Apollo and a host of others representing matrons, children and emperors.

Believed to have been built by the Etruscans in the third century BC, the baths, which include fountains and altars, were made more opulent during the Roman period, with emperors including Augustus frequenting the springs for their health and therapeutic benefits.

Alongside the 24 bronze statues, five of which are almost a metre tall, archaeologists found thousands of coins as well as Etruscan and Latin inscriptions. Visitors are said to have thrown coins into the baths as a gesture for good luck for their health.

Massimo Osanna, the director general of museums at the Italian culture ministry, said the relics were the most significant discovery of their kind since two full-size Greek bronzes of naked bearded warriors were found off the Calabrian coast near Riace in 1972. “It is certainly one of the most significant discoveries of bronzes in the history of the ancient Mediterranean,” Osanna told the Italian news agency Ansa.

The ancient spa was active until the fifth century, when the pools were sealed with heavy stone pillars, which the archaeologists removed. 

The excavation project at San Casciano dei Bagni has been led by the archaeologist Jacopo Tabolli since 2019. In August, several artefacts, including fertility statues that were thought to have been used as dedications to the gods, were found at the site. Tabolli, a professor at the University for Foreigners of Siena, described the latest discovery as “absolutely unique”.

The Etruscan civilisation thrived in Italy, mostly in the central regions of Tuscany and Umbria, for 500 years before the arrival of the Roman Republic. The Etruscans had a strong influence on Roman cultural and artistic traditions.

Initial analysis of the 24 statues, believed to have been made by local craftsmen between the second and first centuries BC, as well as countless votive offerings discovered at the site, indicates that the relics perhaps originally belonged to elite Etruscan and Roman families, landowners, local lords and Roman emperors.

The discovery of the well-preserved statues has been hailed as the most significant of its kind in 50 years.

Tabolli told Ansa that the hot springs, rich in minerals including calcium and magnesium, remained active until the fifth century, before being closed down, but not destroyed, during Christian times. The pools were sealed with heavy stone pillars while the divine statues were left in the sacred water.

The treasure trove was found after archaeologists removed the covering. “It is the greatest store of statues from ancient Italy and is the only one whose context we can wholly reconstruct,” said Tabolli.

The recently appointed Italian culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said the “exceptional discovery” confirms once again that “Italy is a country full of huge and unique treasures”.

The relics represent an important testament to the transition between the Etruscan and Roman periods, with the baths being considered a haven of peace.

“Even in historical epochs in which the most awful conflicts were raging outside, inside these pools and on these altars the two worlds, the Etruscan and Roman ones, appear to have coexisted without problems,” said Tabolli.

Excavations at the site will resume next spring, while the winter period will be used to restore and conduct further studies on the relics.

The artefacts will be housed in a 16th-century building recently bought by the culture ministry in the town of San Casciano. The site of the ancient baths will also be developed into an archaeological park.

“All of this will be enhanced and harmonised, and could represent a further opportunity for the spiritual growth of our culture, and also of the cultural industry of our country,” said Sangiuliano.

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Intricate and rich in detail, the bronzes include votive statues of pagan gods as well as depictions of young men, elderly matrons and emperors. Some are preserved fully intact while others are dismembered. Archaeologists speculate that the works, five of which are around a metre tall, were cast by local craftsmen. A number are so well preserved that they still carry inscriptions of the names of eminent local Etruscans, a pre-Roman people that lived in the region.

Excavations began in 2019 in a Roman-Etruscan sanctuary close to the springs that fuelled the Bagno Grande, or Great Bath, of San Casciano. The statues served a religious purpose peculiar to the bathhouse, and many of them—alongside a smattering of religious objects, cast in silver and gold—represent figures connected to healing.

Archaeologists speculate that the sanctuary was later sealed with heavy stone columns by Christians in the fifth century. This protected the statues from the mud and boiling streams ejected by the bathhouse, which dates to the third century BC.

Votive offerings and around 5,000 gold, silver and bronze coins were also found during three years of excavations at the site, which has drawn visitors to its natural thermal waters for more than two millennia.

Jacopo Tabolli, the Etruscan specialist who led the project, called it an “unparallelled” discovery that promised to shed new light on the period when the bronzes were created, from around the 2nd century BC to the first century AD.

It was during this time that the ancient civilisation of the Etruscans, conquered by Rome, was gradually absorbed into the Roman Empire.

picture shows Hindu Swastika (this is from old file)

ETRUSCAN- HINDU/ TAMIL LINK – Tamil and Vedas

https://tamilandvedas.com › 2012/07/28 › etruscan-hin…

28 Jul 2012 — Etruria is the modern day Tuscany and part of Umbrian Italy. They ruled Rome from 616-509 BC. Roman civilization was greatly influenced by …

DIVINATION in The Vedas, Babylonian and Etruscan

https://tamilandvedas.com › 2015/04/10 › divination-in…

10 Apr 2015 — Tamil and Vedas. A blog exploring themes in Tamil and vedic literature. DIVINATION in The Vedas, Babylonian and Etruscan.

–SUBHAM—

tags- Etruscan, new discovery, 24 bronzes, in spa, Tuscany, Italy