Field director Emanuele Mariotti clearly calls this the “discovery of the century”. This is the most important discovery in Mediterranean archeology to date in the 21st century, and perhaps even in the last century.
In the fall of 2022, his team, which was excavating an ancient thermal spring in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy, unveiled to the public the magnificent artifacts pulled from the mud. Scholars and armchair archaeologists alike were stunned by both the wealth of artifacts, including more than 20 bronze statues and busts, and the remarkable state of preservation, thanks to a long slumber under an airtight blanket of mud. .
While the artistic value of the bronzes is indisputable, what makes San Casciano so important is that the excavated items and the wider ruins date back to the planned closure of the site around the beginning of the 5th century AD. Mariotti says it’s about keeping things as they were. “There are so many beautiful objects in museums,” he says. “But sometimes the relationships and stories between those objects are left untold.” Thanks to this intact historical context, the story that emerges here is one in which control of the central Italian peninsula came from the Etruscans. It promises to shed new light on the end of the Etruscan period, the turning point in history that gave way to the Romans.
Archaeologists also recovered bronze anatomical diagrams of feet, hands, ears, internal organs, internal organs, and even a womb. These strange discoveries help prove that San Casciano was more than just a place where worshipers petitioned the gods.
Researchers say these artifacts may indicate that visitors to San Casciano were visiting an established medical center for almost a thousand years, with good potential for healing. . The cure may have been due not only to divine intervention, but also to skilled healers who understood the human anatomy, knowledge of disease, and the therapeutic properties of the hot mineral water that still bubbles throughout the valley. there is.
(Credit: Italian Ministry of Culture)
Adoption and extinction of culture
Today, San Casciano dei Bagni is one of the most popular spa destinations in Tuscany. Steam rises from the outdoor hot spring pool of a luxury resort. At the bottom of the hill, those who don’t want to pay five-star rates can soak in shallow stone vache (bathtubs) built by the Romans and fed by the same hot springs that have bubbled here for thousands of years. I can. There are 42 sorgenti (springs) here that gush out millions of gallons of water each day, naturally heating them to temperatures from 100 degrees Fahrenheit to 108 degrees Fahrenheit.
Only a high fence separates today’s bathers from the sanctuary of the Bagno Grande (“Great Bath”). Bagno Grande was until recently buried under agricultural land. Since excavations began in 2019, archaeologists led by Mariotti and Jacopo Tavolli of the University of Siena per Stranieri have been draining and excavating this semi-elliptical pool and the surrounding ritual space. These were almost certainly the centers of much larger religious and healing complexes. .
The complex was active from the 3rd century BC to the early 5th century AD. Its period of peak importance and greatest interest to researchers appears to have been between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. Bronze vessels date from this period. And they help tell the story of the Italian peninsula’s turbulent times, the centuries-long arc of Etruscan decline and Roman hegemony.
By the 2nd century, Rome had secured its authority in Etruria, a region of central Italy that now included parts of Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio. Archaeological evidence suggests that during this period, the Etruscan language and identity, which had dominated central Italy since at least 900 B.C., was undergoing Romanization (when Rome absorbed oppressed cultures, adopting and adapting certain aspects). This suggests that the country was largely consumed by a gradual and organized hegemony. , and erase the others. However, popular uprisings remained common, and even if an uneasy truce prevailed, it was enforced by Roman military power.
However, the bronze medal at San Casciano challenges this accepted history. Instead, they provide contextual evidence that Etruscan and Latin cultures and peoples coexist peacefully and come together to seek cures, give thanks to God, and seek cures for their ailments. . Many recently discovered bronze vessels are inscribed in Etruscan or Latin and are contemporary with each other, indicating that the Etruscan language survived much longer than previously thought. There are many inscriptions of prominent families from nearby Chiusi (one of the most important Etruscan cities), Perugia, and Siena, evidence that these families survived the Roman conquest.
According to Tabori, these statues, coupled with the long period in which the site was active, meant that “even in the historical period of the most terrible conflicts, there were many statues outside, inside these basins, and on these altars. This confirms the existence of two worlds, Etruscan and Latin.”They seem to coexist without any problems. ” The 2023 excavation of the travertine altar further corroborates Tabori and his team’s findings. The inscriptions on this altar, which date back to the 1st century AD, describe the sanctity of the thermal springs or springs and are written in both Etruscan and Latin.
Archaeologists have so far pulled more than 20 bronze objects from the mud, ranging from busts to statues and votive offerings. (Credit: Italian Ministry of Culture)
Healing site
So what actually happened at San Casciano dei Bagni? Why do archaeologists believe this was a place of healing rather than just worship? The answer lies in Etruscan and Roman medical expertise, the presence of on-site thermal mineral water, and the bottom of the Bagno Grande. Found inside a dazzling bronze clue left behind.
Ancient texts, including those of the Greek philosopher Theophrastus of the 4th century BC, who was a contemporary of the Etruscans, speak of the Etruscans’ skill in the use of medicinal plants. Many of these herbal remedies and related treatments are still known to us today, such as feverfew for treating pain and inflammation, gentian for treating digestive disorders, and valerian for treating eczema and insomnia. Masu. Hundreds of years later, the famous Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, discovered that the Etruscans used milifolium (or yarrow) to treat wounds and toothaches. is written in “Natural History”.
This archaeological record provides much insight into ancient medical understanding and practice in Italy during the Roman Empire. “Name a surgical instrument, and they probably had one,” said Loren Caldwell, a lecturer in Roman social history, medical history, and law at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Spatulas for applying ointments, knives, scissors, cupping containers, tools that archaeologists have discovered at sites such as Pompeii and Rimini include obstetric instruments, mirrors for gynecological and rectal examinations, and tools for extracting teeth and removing bones. Caldwell points out that although there is scant documentary evidence describing actual surgical procedures before the Roman Empire, the first century AD encyclopedia Aulus Cornelius Celsus mentions cutting of bladder stones. It states that there are descriptions of surgeries such as amputation and limb amputation.
Just as importantly, based on an understanding of Roman and Etruscan medical expertise, ancient records document the association of springs and spas with healing, wisdom that the Romans gleaned from the Etruscans. It’s about being there. Prior to the excavations at San Casciano, springs, pools, and running water facilities had been identified at several Etruscan cult sites, which, like at San Casciano, served as Roman places of worship and, in some cases, for healing. It became a place. By at least the 1st century BC, the Romans associated springs with healing. Vitruvius recommended that temples to healing gods be built near these springs, so that the sick may be “transferred from an unhealthy place to a healthy place, and treated with the waters of health-giving springs.” , they grow faster and better. As a result, you will find that the Divinity is more highly valued and its majesty increased, but this is all due to the nature of his place. Caldwell points out that Celsus described going to the hot springs to treat fever, chills, and muscle pain, as well as to recover after surgery and heal wounds.
Caldwell explains that locating a healing facility next to a cult site reflects how faith and medicine were intertwined in the minds of ancient people. “We have a broader sense that in people’s minds, the idea of divine healing coexisted and was compatible with going to the doctor,” she says, adding that the same person believed that the god of medicine and healing coexisted and was compatible with going to the doctor. Say you would both ask for help. Hot springs are still used today for therapeutic benefits and would logically have been a place to seek healing and make offerings to the gods. A healing pilgrimage may have included the patient making an initial offering as a supplication, which may have included a vow to make another offering once healing had been achieved. There is a gender. Excavations at San Casciano are just beginning to explore broader questions about what activities took place around the sanctuary, such as worship services and healing by shamans.
Taken together, the bronze statues indicate that both supplication and thanksgiving were offered in the San Casciano text. Anatomical parts recovered, such as a model of the womb and a statue of an infant, suggest that worshipers may have been praying for pregnancy and safe childbirth. Bronze hands, feet, and ears may have been left behind as a request to a god to heal a particular part of the body. Or perhaps it was a more symbolic request to touch God, walk with him, or be heard by God. It is thought that the offerings were left at the edge of the Bagno Grande or on small altars surrounding the main pool. Some were left at the base of the large tree that once stood in the sanctuary.
Among the most interesting items recovered from Bagno Grande are two bronze models of internal organs. It depicts a torso with exposed organs such as the lungs, trachea, stomach and intestines, which Mariotti describes as essentially a “bronze dissection.” One is inscribed with the donor’s name and provenance, followed by his VSLM (an abbreviation for the Latin votum solvit libens Merito), which states that the donor is “of course free to make vows.” ” means.
Archaeologist Jean McIntosh Tarfa of the University of Pennsylvania has extensively studied ancient anatomical votive offerings and found that the inscription on the torso reads, [indicated] There are so many different problems.The fact that they don’t specify [the ailment] Not drawing lesions on the inscription is the same as not drawing lesions on the model. This is because depicting illness or imperfection can damage a treatment’s good reputation and remind people that their suffering is a punishment from God. ”
Such offerings, called ex-voto, were made in fulfillment of a vow to God (“If you heal me, I will donate”), and were made in fulfillment of a vow made to God by the donor. It shows that we are healed, but we are not healed. I don’t understand anything.
(Credit: Italian Ministry of Culture)
save the offering
The centuries when Etruscans and Romans jointly worshiped, sought cures, and left precious offerings at San Casciano began around the end of the 4th or early 5th century AD, essentially sealed in a time capsule at Bagno. The Grande was very deliberately demolished, but not by pagans seeking to preserve the vanishing vestiges of their faith, or by the emerging Christian majority. The person who closed this place intentionally placed a bronze utensil in the main pool and placed a stone pillar with baskas on top of it. , effectively preserving offerings for over 1,500 years.
Bathers at nearby public baths or private hotels on the hill may not understand the historical significance of the hot springs they are soaking in. They no longer leave offerings, but come to the bathhouse, perhaps seeking some form of healing. What never changes is water, springs, and sources. And as excavations continue here in the years to come, those same waters will continue to reveal the secrets of this remarkable place of cultural crossroads and ancient healing.
This article was originally published in the March-April 2024 issue. For more articles like this, click here to subscribe.