 Hey, I'm here today. I've come all the way to Tuscany. I'm here in San Casciano de Pagni And it's a place where people still bathe It goes all the way back thousands of years it goes back to the ancient Romans and before And it's in this neighborhood. You have a phenomenal discovery one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the past Several decades, so let's take a look at the site and let's take a look at the discoveries Discoveries are so important. They've allowed it to be displayed inside Palazzo Quirinale, the presidential palace of Italy And this exhibition is ongoing to the end of December. The gods return. Here is a lovely presentation of the work That's been found recently. You're allowed to get up close and personal with these new discoveries almost as soon as they've been unearthed It's an extraordinary opportunity Inside the courtyard of honor This is where heads of state will arrive and be greeted by the president of Italy And it's a place that you can walk through and explore a little bit on your way to the exhibition With so much history going back to the 16th century. Here is a great elliptical staircase beautiful dedicated to about 1583 on your way to the exhibition Thermal springs are located in the Valley of San Caciano along the El Vela River They were known as the Fontes Clusini already from the 6th century BC And they were anatomic bronze figurines dedicated as early as the 3rd century BC And by 89 BC, QZ received Roman citizenship And the 40 springs in the area were occupied with many Sanctuaries and already the Minici family built a portico in 1575 on top of the Etruscan Roman Sanctuary And in the vicinity, altars dedicated to Apollo, Asclepius, Higheia Were found as well as a bathing Aphrodite statue And the first bronze deposit was found in 2004 that was very noteworthy This is an excavation, a collaboration between the University Per Stranieri di Siena, the Fundazione Friends of Florence, and the Archaeological Superintendency But the really great discovery took place from 2020 into 2022 Exceptional discoveries in a single large travertine line pool With dedications going back to the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD That were Etruscan and then that pool was enlarged by Tiberius and remained in use until the 4th century AD Where I'm sitting is a place where the water still flows Bathers still come. You have a nice warm temperature of this water emanating from the side of the hill just as it's done for thousands and thousands of years Anyone can come free of charge to bathe in these waters So we want to think about the healing, the restorative properties of this water, the minerals, the content that's Given from Mother Earth, it was bestowed upon the ancients. It's bestowed upon us today if we bring a bathing suit Digging down three meters into the central pool The archaeologists came across a series of packed tiles and underneath it There was this bronze Thunderbolt indicating that this was a fulgur conditum or a bidental a place made sacred having been struck by lightning And as a result the interpretation from Etruscan priests experts in reading lightning strikes Determined that a series of bronze statues in the sanctuary had to be ritually buried here Therein begins an investigation of this great discovery of a series of bronze statues Many with their own inscriptions ensized in them We can admire the scale of these statues each one's about three feet in height three Roman feet Which is a noble measurement according to Pliny the Elder and Each of these statues has its own inscription ensized directly on it. Let's start with the woman and Her inscription reads in Etruscan Aule Scarpe son of an Aule and of a Belliminae Gave as a sacred gift to the goddess of the spring And this one reads Lucius Marcius Gravillo son of Lucius Dedicated this statue and other six and six legs from the foot to the groin to the hot spring of Calida Discharge the valve freely as is deserved. So how can we interpret this dedication? It's this very statue that's dedicated, but also a series of legs made of bronze as well. We imagine That represent the foot and then the length of the leg up to the groin All dedicated to the hot spring of the nymph the goddess Calida here we have a beautiful Hellenistic style statue of Apollo who's pulling his bow. He's a little off-balance He's in a dynamic pose and we have to think of him also as a god of healing an appropriate deity for this sanctuary And he was found next to a scalpel and also this this votive offering of internal organs with this inscription down below and it reads Athematus Administrator of Sulpicia Triaria To Fortuna the goddess has discharged the valve freely as is deserved So the interpretation is that Apollo is a god of healing Scalpel also indicates that physicians were on location and ultimately you could get whatever aild you cured by prayer and by doctors Here we have two portrait heads of a man and a woman beautifully rendered The woman doesn't have an inscription But the male portrait does Let's take a look It's written in a Truscan and it reads on behalf of New Frey of the new friends of family Son of Arath from Perugia to the goddess of the spring it is placed as a vow to be discharged And here we have this togate figure, which is an absolute Masterpiece and when we look at the length of the toga, it's quite short and the little boots beautifully rendered We have a figure that is very similar to the a Truscan Roman Arringatori figure of about a hundred BC So we see the influence of the Romans we see the influence of the Etruscans And the only inscription we have on it are these few initials We have further a series of smaller mode of offerings various figures in various poses many with inscriptions and Then of course we have anatomical pieces body parts legs feet hands eyes breasts and Ears Let's take a look at some of the choice pieces like this young figure this child with a bullet protective amulet Inscribed with an inscription on his leg Here we have a female figure and what is she holding in her hands? They've been interpreted as eels Possibly as an offering here's a lizard and of course we have many figurines of men and women and We have body parts like this foot that we see is dedicated to Fortuna primigenia We also have fruits such as pine cones plum pits peach pits and even branches of trees There's a great variety of Dedications there's also a coin hoard up to 5000 coins were found Here is a stash of 200 and as we can see they date to the imperial time. We see many portraits of emperors in This collection. It is a fascinating treasure trove in this sanctuary The discoveries continue to be made the excavation is ongoing It's so exciting to see these great discoveries Immediately on display for the public free of charge in Palazzo Quarri Nale This exhibition is open to the end of December We recommend that you see it and once again, please subscribe and like this video We have so many more exhibitions and sites to see with you on ancient Rome live