Archaeologists Found the 1,500-Year-Old Head of a Roman Statue Buried in Construction Rubble

Archeologists working at the Basilica of Saint Stephen in Rome discovered a statue head within the church’s foundation.
Located near the Tombe di Via Latina, the carved stone was likely treated as construction material at the time of the building of the church.
Experts believe the use of a Roman statue as fill for a Christian church sheds new light on the Late Antique period from the fourth to six centuries A.D.

When digging through the rubble of an ancient church foundation, archaeologists found something unexpected. As crews in Rome were excavating the archaeological area of the Tombe di Via Latina during work at the Basilica of Santo Stefano, they found the head of a Roman-era stone statue amidst the foundational muck.

The bearded head was covered in layers of mortar—it was serving as a piece of the foundation for a church building from ancient Rome—and will now make its way to Italy’s Central Institute for Restoration in Matera, according to a translated statement from the Archaeological Park of Appia Antica, for the start of a restoration process that experts hope answer questions along the way.

Through the restoration, experts hope to learn a little more about why a carved stone statue ended up as construction fodder.

The archaeologists said that the statue depicts a bearded male figure, potentially a deity or mythological figure, but the thick layers of grime and mortar coating the carefully carved face and beard mean restoration is the next logical step. At this stage, the statue could be a depiction of anyone from Jupiter to a Roman philosopher. There’s also hope that by removing the dirt, an inscription with additional information surfaces.

After restoration in Matera, the head will move to Rome for further analysis. The team that discovered the sculpture hopes that the additional research will help determine where the statue was originally created, its age, the carving technique used and possibly connect it to a historical piece of art that can tell the team more about its origin story.

Of course, understanding where it came from may better explain how it ended up where it was.

The experts wrote that finding out more about the statue head could give scholars insight into the cultural happenings of the Late Antique period in Rome between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D., a time that saw the transition of Roman-embraced deities to Christianity, “providing new elements for the understanding of the cultural and settling dynamics of the period.”

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