St. Casciano, another extraordinary discovery: two-meter marble Apollo found

New, important discovery from the excavation of the Sanctuary of San Casciano dei Bagni (Siena), the same as the now famous bronzes discovered exactly one year ago. In fact, a youthful Apollo in marble about two meters tall, depicted while intent on hunting a lizard, a copy from a bronze original by Praxiteles (the so-called “Apollo sauroctono,” i.e., “Apollo slayer of the lizard”), was found. The work was found along with a very special stone donarium with a bilingual inscription and many bronze, terracotta, and crystal objects from which experts think they can glean important information about the life of the sanctuary (these objects accompanied the construction phases between the dismantling of the Etruscan-era temple and the imperial monumentalization of the new sacellum). The donarium, made of travertine, represents one of the rarest examples of bilingual inscriptions ever found, now the subject of studies by Adriano Maggiani and Gian Luca Gregori. There are about thirty bilingual inscriptions in Etruria, but for the most part they are funerary inscriptions. In this case, the monumental donario has a public character and mentions the hot, sacred source in Etruscan and Latin. This is an extraordinary document that confirms the coexistence of different peoples at the sanctuary still in the early first century CE, with the deity’s need to be understood by all.

The original of the Apollo sculpture (or at least what is thought to be the original, preserved at the Cleveland Museum of Art), and other ancient marble copies of the work housed in various museums are well-known works, but never had the Apollo been found in context.

“The San Casciano excavation never ceases to amaze,” Luigi La Rocca, director general of archaeology at the Ministry of Culture, tells Ansa: “Not only bronzes, then, were dedicated to the salutary deities worshipped in this extraordinary water sanctuary, but also marble statues, valuable, sometimes replicas, as in this case, of Greek originals, evidence of the attendance of subjects belonging to the most varied social classes, from the rich Etruscan aristocracies to the humblest workers engaged in the construction of sacred buildings.”

The Apollociano

The new excavation campaign, which lasted more than three months, ended last October 14. The Sauroctono Apollo is presented without limbs and head: the statue was in fact broken when the sanctuary was closed at the beginning of the fifth century AD. This is the time in fact when the entire place of worship was ritually closed, probably as a result of the widespread Christianization of the area. While the votive deposit was protected by the deposition of the large travertine columns that adorned the temple portico, the cult statue of Apollo was broken, fragmented, and the pieces almost scattered and then covered by the site’s abandonment embankments. In parallel with what we know and still observe today-the “contestation of the statue” coincides with a time of profound transformation and major political and social questions.

There are plenty of examples of Apollo cults linked to thermal waters as early as Archaic times. Apollo appears in San Casciano dei Bagni certainly as early as 100 B.C. if we think of the dancing, bowed bronze statue placed in the oldest pool and exhibited at the Quirinal Palace. The deity’s name recurs on at least two travertine altars from the very Bagno Grande and dated in the imperial age. So the marble statue adds a piece of the god’s presence but in a sanctuary that from at least the second century B.C. to the third century A.D. centered on the role of Apollo. A beardless, young, lizard-wielding Apollo, where the themes of ophthalmic care and protection of the younger stages of life are inextricably linked. Massimiliano Papini is already at work on the study of the Apollo statue, and we hope soon to be able to fully tell its story. The excavation has thus reached an extension of about 400 square meters, reaching a depth from ground level in some places of more than four meters.

The excavation is under concession to the Municipality of San Casciano dei Bagni by decree of the General Directorate of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of the Ministry of Culture No. 759 of June 13, 2022. Underlying the excavation is the collaboration between the municipality led by Mayor Agnese Carletti, the Superintendence of Siena, headed by Gabriele Nannetti, and the University for Foreigners of Siena, with Rector Tomaso Montanari. The excavation took place from June 26, 2023 to October 14, 2023. The excavation direction is entrusted by the municipality to Dr. Emanuele Mariotti. Scientific coordination is by the University for Foreigners of Siena, with the CADMO center (Center for Archaeology of Preroman Diversity and Mobility), directed by Prof. Jacopo Tabolli. The scientific direction is shared with Dr. Ada Salvi of the Soprintendenza, which is also responsible for the direct protection of the site and materials.

More than fifty student archaeologists from Italian and international universities participated, while the scientific research team consists of more than seventy scholars and scholars. Orietta Casponi’s company Ecol B contributed to the excavation, consolidation and restoration efforts, with field coordination by Carlo Brecciaroli. Field restoration of the movable materials was conducted by restorer Laura Rivaroli, with scientific supervision by Wilma Basilissi of the Central Institute for Restoration.

The Superintendent’s Office financed the design and construction of the new excavation fence in these months of excavation to directly protect the area of investigation. The excavation was funded by the Municipality of San Casciano dei Bagni and also received financial support from Friends of Florence, Vaseppi Trust, Group E - IT Allies, Banfi company, Michelangelo Travel and Castello di Fighine. The university research is funded by the University for Foreigners of Siena through the Center for Pre-Roman Diversity and Mobility Archaeology. The Eutyche Avidiena Archaeological Group has coordinated the civic archaeology trails, archaeological walks between the Cassian Stanze museum and the archaeological site, accompanying more than three thousand people to discover the ancient landscape of San Casciano dei Bagni around Bagno Grande.

“Each excavation campaign,” says Mayor Agnese Carletti, “tells us a new and exciting piece of history that, as always, we want to tell the community by continuing the process of civic archaeology that we undertook four years ago. Thanks go to all those who allowed these 14 weeks of excavation to take place in the best possible way as well: archaeologists and archaeologists, public agencies and private entities, citizens and associations. A great project that step by step continues and for whose realization, more and more, the support of the Ministry of Culture is essential.”

“The 2023 excavation campaign at Bagno Grande has recently concluded,” Gabriele Nannetti emphasizes, “which confirmed the importance and centrality of the Etruscan-Roman sanctuary that arose near the thermal spring of the same name, in the albeit very rich heritage that the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of Siena Grosseto and Arezzo is called upon to protect. The complexity of managing the projects that are increasingly emerging around the archaeological area and the future Museum of St. Casciano is being faced by our Institution in a perspective of mutual support and virtuous collaboration with the other actors, external and internal to the Ministry, who are involved in various ways; this management, while requiring exceptional efforts, is being strengthened day by day, also in the sign of a lucid awareness of the multiplicity of aspects to be addressed in the coming seasons.”

“The 2023 excavation,” Jacopo Tabolli points out, “has continued to bring to light the complexity of a sacred context in constant evolution. Around the hot spring for more than seven hundred years a temple was built and consolidated that certainly constituted the hub of the reception of different peoples at the Bagno Grande. The bilingual donarium with the name of the spring constitutes tangible evidence of multiculturalism and multilingualism in antiquity in San Casciano dei Bagni. Our University for Foreigners of Siena is committed to the excavation to make this experience a unique educational opportunity for students from all over the world who choose to come and do research with us.”

“The 2023 excavation campaign,” says Emanuele Mariotti, “also provided extraordinary surprises, confirming how the Bagno Grande site is, as a whole, a very rich context that goes far beyond individual objects or individual bronzes. Thanks to the commendable work of dozens of archaeologists, the research was enriched with new data, suggestions and new questions. The site, during the 4 months of excavation, grew even larger, embracing the areas around the sacred building with the large votive pool. The topography of the site has been enriched and clarified, showing new structures and beautiful masonry that will increasingly enhance the site, also with a view to a future archaeological-thermal park. At the same time, water continues to be the real protagonist of this place: water and the large votive basin, where, still on the edges and from the edges, exposed and then concealed by the often dramatic events of history, new testimonies and finds such as the marble statue of Apollo sauroctono and the bilingual Etruscan/Latin donary, tell us about art, deities, cures, people and above all about the encounter between Etruscan culture and the Roman world.”

“The continuation of the investigation in the summer of 2023,” explains Ada Salvi, “has allowed further steps toward understanding a site that brings out with great evidence the complexity and plurality of aspects that in antiquity were related to the care of body and soul. But the excavation is only the ’tip of the iceberg’ of all the other activities of protection, planning and heritage management that have been carried out in recent months-including the continuation of the restoration of the bronzes conducted thanks to the agreement signed between Soprintendenza Abap di Siena Grosseto e Arezzo and Istituto Centrale del Restauro di Roma-that will allow the achievement of the goal that unites all the protagonists of this extraordinary adventure: the fruition and enhancement of the archaeological area and the exceptional material evidence that has been returned to us from the excavation of Bagno Grande.”

St. Casciano, another extraordinary discovery: two-meter marble Apollo found

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