According to the outlet, the exciting discovery was made during a dig in the ancient city of Aizanoi, a city that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has referred to as “one of the most significant cities of the Roman Period.”
The city, which is currently listed as a “tentative” World Heritage Site, is home to “one of the best-preserved Zeus Temples in the world,” as well as the ruins of Roman baths and an indoor market known as the macellum, UNESCO continued. Now, the city is home to Aphrodite and Dionysus; that is, the stone-carved versions of them.
Live Science stated that the headless bodies of the statues were found during a previous dig.
Gokhan Coskun, an archaeologist and excavation coordinator, told Anadolu Agency that the statues are an important cultural discovery.
“These are important findings for us, as they show that the polytheistic culture of ancient Greece existed for a long time without losing its importance in the Roman era,” Coskun told the agency. “The findings suggest that there may have been a sculpture workshop in the region.”
Both heads are made of limestone, reported Live Science. Aphrodite’s head measures 19 inches tall, while Dionysus’s head measures 17 inches tall. In a conversation with French news website Geo, the archaeologists remarked that they were moved by the heads’ “astonishing beauty.”
According to Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty, and Dionysus was the god of wine and ecstasy, said Britannica. In Roman mythology, the gods were known as Venus and Bacchus, respectively. Live Science stated that the two gods “had a grand love affair.”
Aphrodite, or Venus, was particularly important to ancient Rome. The goddess of love symbolized “Rome’s imperial power,” said the J. Paul Getty Museum.
“Venus’s first temples were erected in Rome during the 200s B.C. to solicit her assistance in battles, and individual leaders later allied themselves with the deity,” the museum said. “Julius Caesar and his heir, Augustus, forged particularly explicit ties to Venus, claiming descent through her son, the Trojan hero Aeneas.”
The limestone heads of Dionysus and Aphrodite aren’t the only exciting archaeological discoveries to make headlines this year. In August, the partially-mummified skeleton of a former slave was found in Pompeii. The skeleton was referred to by scientists as one of the “best-preserved skeletons” to ever be found in the ancient city.
Also in August, an ancient Roman “fast food” restaurant discovered in Pompeii in 2019 opened its doors to the public.
