Apollo statue present in Tuscany. | EUROtoday

Et is without doubt one of the most essential archaeological finds of the previous 12 months: the votive deposit with greater than twenty bronze statues from Etruscan and Roman instances, which was recovered from the mud of an historic thermal tub in San Casciano dei Bagni, a city within the southeastern nook of Tuscany. The excavation marketing campaign this 12 months has confirmed the importance of the discover: on the sting of the sacred pool, fragments of a marble statue of Apollo Sauroktonos (“Lizard Slayer”) appeared, which could be nearly utterly reassembled. The nearly two meter excessive determine was damaged when the sanctuary was deserted within the fifth century, in all probability on account of the widespread Christianization of the area, the items have been scattered and lined by the rubble of the deserted website.

The excavation additionally delivered to gentle an distinctive travertine donarium with a bilingual textual content. In distinction to a lot of the thirty or so bilingual inscriptions recognized in Etruria, this isn’t a funerary inscription, however quite a public point out of the thermal spring in Etruscan and Latin.