SACRED SPRING
San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy
t the beginning of the first century A.D.,lightning struck a sanctuary at a site known as Bagno Grande, or Large Bath. For centuries, the thermal pool there, or “buried thunderbolt,” was intended to seal the objects in and mark the spot as especially sacred. Archaeologist Jacopo Tabolli of the University for Foreigners of Siena describes the discovery of these offerings, which include bronze statues of men, women, children, divinities, and individual body parts, as a complete surprise. “We knew from archival sources that in the 1600s and 1700s there was a thermal spa close to Bagno Grande,” he says, “but we had no idea it was an ancient sanctuary.”
