- Home
- 10 good reasons NOT to come to the Museum
- Information
- Collections
- Events
- Educational Service
- News
- Places
- Audio e video
Museo Civico Archeologico
Via dell'Archiginnasio 2 - 40124 Bologna
Tel. 051.27.57.211
Direzione e Uffici
Via de' Musei 8 β 40124 Bologna
Tel. 051.27.57.211 - Fax 051.26.65.16
mca@comune.bologna.it
The custom of dedicating terracotta votive gifts β heads, busts, statues, human and animal figurines, body parts β in sanctuaries began in the early 5th century and continued through to the 2nd in southern Etruria, Latium and Campania. The sheer number of these ex-voto suggests it was an extensive cult and possibly rooted in the country class, which was that of most men enrolled in the army fighting for supremacy of the peninsula.
Heads, busts and statues represented the devout donor and symbolized their presence at the sacred site, ensuring contact with the divinity.
The ex-voto were die cast, finished with a spatula or modelled trim, then decorated after firing in a range of colours that has survived in very few cases.
Provenance: From Veio University Collection, formerly part of the Marsili Collection
Datation: Late 4thβ3rd century BC
Material: terracotta
Inventory #: IT 1192