Rome, the “Eternal City”, brims with ancient history, and continues to offer up remarkable evidence of its past. This was the case on 6 July, when archaeologists digging in the Piazza Augusto Imperatore came across a mud-encrusted relic that turned out to be an intact white marble head.
"Rome continues to give forth precious evidence of its past," the mayor of Italy's capital, Roberto Gualtieri, wrote on Twitter, adding a picture of the find.
Screengrab of Twitter post by Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri.
© Photo : Twitter
The delicate features carved in Greek marble, along with the hair gathered at the back with a ribbon would appear to suggest the head is that of a young woman - possibly the female deity Venus, as she's known in Roman lore, or Aphrodite in Greek - of natural dimensions, according to Claudio Parisi Presicce, the Capitoline Superintendent of Cultural Heritage or Sovrintendenza Capitolina, the man in charge of managing Rome's historical and archaeological heritage.
The relic was found inside the foundations of an ancient wall while work was being carried out to “redevelop the mausoleum of Augustus and the Piazza Augusto Imperatore,” according to a statement published online by Rome city council. The portal also thanked the “attentive work of the archaeologists of the Superintendent”.
The elegant head was discovered lying face down, and was intact because it had been protected by a clay bank on which the wall's foundations rested. According to Presicce, the marble head had been "recycled as a building material”.
“The recycling of sculptures, even those of significant value, was common practice in the late Middle Ages, which allowed, as in this case, the successful preservation of important works of art,” he added.
According to Mayor Gualtieri, archaeologists and restorers were now “busy cleaning and studying the find”.