Bronze trove found at ancient Italian spa

Bronze snakes, statues, two gold crowns, jewellery, thousands of coins and perfectly intact eggs are among the latest remarkable discoveries to emerge from the site of an ancient thermal spa in a small town in Tuscany.

- Guardian international staff

The trove had been preserved by the warm waters and mud at the springs, believed to have been built by the Etruscans in the second century BC, in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town close to Siena.

The site, which was a place of worship for the Etruscan people and later the Romans, has been under excavation since 2019, with the first finds – 24 bronze statues, mostly dedicated to the gods – unearthed three years later.