Carsulae Visit and Documentation Center

In the #Carsulae Visit and Documentation Center, located at the entrance to the archaeological site, some of the finds from the excavation works carried out between 1951 and 1972 and directed by the archaeologist Umberto Ciotti - to whom the Center is named-are permanently exhibited. They were unearthed in the urban area of ​​Carsulae and just outside it,beyond the arch of San Damiano,where the necropolis of the Roman city was located.

Among the finest exhibits on display are:

The head and knee with drapery of a colossal statue of the emperor Claudius (41dC-54), a monumental manifestation of the imperial cult. Unlike other representations of Claudius with which these finds have been compared,in the statue of Carsulae the presence of a pin in the upper cap of the head suggests that the civic crown was applied and not sculpted together with the head. The sculpture was almost certainly located in one of the buildings in the Forum area, on the north side of which these two parts of the sculpture were found.

The beautiful statue of Dionysus, retrieved without some of its parts and recently restored, almost certainly comes from the area of ​​the Theater, one of the first monuments to be brought to light.It is believed that this work of art was sculpted in the second half of the second century AD. The statue portrays young Dionysus leaning,in keeping with classical iconography,on a tree trunk on which vine shoots with vine leaves and bunches of grapes are wrapped; beside it has a small panther, sacred to the god as is the vine. The work is characterized above all by the refined and elegant representation of the youthful aspect of the divinity.

Pliny, in the Naturalis Historia,(one of the literary sources in which Carsulae is mentioned) leaves us a testimony of the cultivation of the vine in Carsulae in Roman times; making a comparison with the pruning methods of this plant in use in two other locations, considered ineffective, Pliny states "... in the territory of Carsulae they hold a middle ground and prune only the damaged parts of the vine and those that begin to dry out, leaving the others to produce grapes; once the superfluous weight has been removed, the fact of having received few injuries is the only nourishment for the vine; but if the soil is not fat,a cultivation of this type causes it to degenerate into lambrusca - that is, into wild grapevines*

 

*Added note

Revised Google translation