A conversant typeface has resurface from the ruination of an ancient Grecian city in Italy .
Archaeologists in Sicily have discovered what they believe to be an ancient Romanic masquerade mould show the iconic Medusa . Under the direction of Roberto Sciarratta from the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park , they unearth the mould in a building from the late Republican period ( 133 to 31 BCE ) in the ruination of Finziade , as detailed in a January 23statementby the Sicilian regional administration . The finding shed lighter on the intersectionality of spiritual and cultural life in ancient Rome .
It ’s not hard to see why the archaeologists forthwith think of the Snake River - headed woman — the mould depicts a stern face fence in by what looks like wild , thickheaded - strand fuzz .
The mask mould discovered in Sicily.© Finziade Project / Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico della Valle dei Templi
“ What you see in the photo is a matrix , used in ancient times as a negative impression for micturate artifacts . By applying material to the cast , it was mould , taking on the shape of the ground substance ! ” reads a Facebook berth by theFinziade Project , the research program encompassing the dig and co - directed by Alessio Toscano Raffa for the Institute of Heritage Science in Catania , a neighborhood of Sicily . A ground substance is a variety of mould .
concord to Hellenic mythology , Medusahad ophidian or else of hair and a ( literally ) petrifying regard . Though the ancient source sometimes differ on her back account , she was one of three sibling monsters called Gorgon , according to Hesiod’sTheogony . unluckily , she ’s perhaps intimately know for her death at the hands of Perseus .
The Grecian zep beheaded Medusa and afterwards continued to habituate the lop head to rick his enemies to pit . As a result , scholars paint a picture that Medusa ’s frequent depictions throughout antiquity — from mosaics to columns to coins — were made to be protective charms .
© Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico della Valle dei Templi
Designated “ House 18 , ” the building where the archaeologist see the 2,000 - year - former mould had most in all likelihood been converted into a workshop for the output of mask around the beginning of the first century BCE . Archaeologists had antecedently discovered standardised artifacts in comparable contexts , so the recent determination further reassert the importance of masquerade production to this area .
Finziade , also spell Phintias , was an ancient Grecian dependency and cityfounded in 282 BCE by Finzia(or Phintias ) , the autocrat decree over the urban center of Akragas . Rome conquer it just two decennary after its founding , and today it ’s locate near the modern - day metropolis of Licata in southwestern Sicily .
The masquerade produced from the mold itself may have been used in decorative , ritual , or theatrical contexts , as account byThe History Blog . As a consequence , the artefact highlights the substantial convergence between spirituality and culture in ancient Rome . It also throw sparkle on the artisanal production and symbolic culture of ancient Finziade .
No archaeologists were rigidify in the excavation of this artifact .
Ancient GreeceAncient romeArchaeologyMyths
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