Rome, June 05: Workmen inside Florence’s courthouse have stumbled across a spiral column and hundreds of multicoloured fragments that experts believe may have belonged to a Roman temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis.
According to Roman news agency ANSA, the remains, dating back to the second century AD, were discovered as the men dug a five by three meter hole, barely four meters deep, for a new water cistern for the courthouse’s anti-incendiary system.
“These finds are of extraordinary importance,” said Alessandro Palchetti, the archaeologist charged with overseeing the works in the courthouse by Florence’s archaeology superintendency, who suspected something interesting might be uncovered because of the area''s historic relevance.
Palchetti said that the remains were “comparable” to others found over the last three centuries in the immediate area that have also been attributed to the temple of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility who was later adopted by the Greeks and Romans.
The location of the temple is unknown, but it is believed to have been built just outside the Roman part of the city, near the current courthouse building, according to Palchetti.
ANI
First Published: Friday, June 05, 2009, 09:03