THE Riace bronzesthe famous pair of Greek bronze statues from the 5th century representing two hoplite warriors found in 1972 and currently exhibited in Reggio Calabria in an excellent state of conservation, could originate from Eastern Sicilyprobably from Brucoliaccording to a recent study published in the journal Italian Journal of Geosciences which proposes a hypothesis according to which they remained for two thousand years in deep seabeds, before being moved and left in the shallow seabed of Riace. Analysis of metal, marine biota and microorganisms support this hypothesis, already advanced in the 1980s. Combining geology, archeology and marine biology, the research reopens the history of the Bronzes, keeping their charm alive even fifty years after their discovery.
The Riace Bronzes were brought to light by a diver, Stefano Mariottini, who a about 8 meters deep he came across by chance what would become among the most famous discoveries of Italian archaeology. The statues, weighing over 160 kg eachare still striking today for their attention to detail and surprising naturalism. They represent two warriors, perhaps heroes or mythical figuresand over time they have fueled different theories on their origin: from Calabria to the Peloponnese, up to eastern Sicily. They were probably part of a larger group and traveled a long way before ending up at sea. After complex restorations, today they are preserved at Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria.
According to theItalian journal of Geosciencesthe Bronzes remained on the Sicilian seabed for two millennia before being found off the Calabrian coast. This is the return of the so-called “Sicilian hypothesis” launched in the 1980s by the American archaeologist Robert Ross Hollowayaccording to which the Bronzes sank in Sicily during the sackings of the Romans in Syracuse in 212 BCduring the Second Punic War.
The research – which involved 15 scholars, including geologists, archaeologists, historians, paleontologists, marine biologists, experts in metal alloys and underwater archaeology, many of whom are professors at the universities of Catania, Ferrara, Cagliari, Bari, Pavia and Reggio Calabria – starts from an analysis conducted in 1995 by the Central Institute for Restorationwho highlighted that the clays used for welding the different parts of the statues and for the terracotta pins with which they were welded they had different geochemical compositions.
The data collected compare the clays of the statues with those of the alluvial plain between the Anapo and Ciane rivers and of hill of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, also in Syracusefinding correspondences with the clays of the statues (total for Statue A and partial for Statue B), confirming the hypothesis that their origin is Sicilian and not Calabrian.
Not only that, by studying the biological remains present on the Bronzes and the chemical composition of the patinas that cover them, and comparing them with the characteristics of the Riace seabed, the researchers discovered something surprising: the statues seem to have remained for centuries in another type of sea, much deeperbefore arriving where they were found in 1972. The marks left on the bottom by the statues seem to date back only a few months before the discovery. The oldest patinas, however, tell us that for over two thousand years the Bronzes would have remained in a different backdropmuch deeper and compatible with that off the coast of Brucoli, on the Sicilian Ionian coast.
“The biggest news of this research“, the scholar Anselmo Madeddu and professor Rosolino Cirrincione, geologist from the University of Catania, told ANSA, “it is the first scientific work that integrates into a single interpretative proposal both the new data emerging from the research and those deriving from the critical review of the most solid scientific evidence already existing, through a multidisciplinary approach capable of returning a unitary, coherent and overall reading of the history of the statues“.
