A Sensation from the Mud
Exceptionally well-preserved bronze statues from a sanctuary in San Casciano, Italy, were discovered in 2022, with more spectacular discoveries in 2024. The statues provide insight into healing rituals and religious practices at the transition from Etruscan to Roman culture. This richly illustrated book presents an account of the excavations.

Exceptionally well-preserved bronze statues from a sanctuary in San Casciano, Italy, were discovered in 2022, with more spectacular discoveries in 2024. The statues provide insight into healing rituals and religious practices at the transition from Etruscan to Roman culture. This richly illustrated book presents an account of the excavations and the 2024 discoveries, alongside major objects now held in the Collection of Classical Antiquities and the Museum of European Cultures, both part of the National Museums in Berlin.

The discovery of a large assemblage of bronze figures at San Casciano dei Bagni in southern Tuscany caused a sensation in 2022. Unearthed from the mud of a thermal spring basin at the centre of an Etrusco-Roman healing sanctuary, these extraordinary artefacts offer striking new insights into centuries of devotional practice. At the sanctuary, the sick sought healing through the thermal waters, and anxious parents sought divine protection for their children.

The statues, as well as many smaller objects, were votive offerings from visitors to the powers worshipped there. They allow us, for the first time, to study how a sanctuary functioned at the transition from Etruscan to Roman culture; Etruscan and Roman inscriptions on the votive offerings providing information about the donors and the deities.

The statues are on display at an exhibition at the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin in the summer of 2025.