Following the excavations started in the northern stretch of Via Alessandrina, at the Imperial Forums, the archaeologists of the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali found a white marble head dating back to the Imperial Age.
The head, whose iconographic features recall the god Dionysus, was found encased in a medieval wall, used as a building material, as was the practice at the time. Based on the style, it can be dated between the I and II Century AD.
The appearance, extremely refined and elegant, presents a thick and wavy hair held by a bandage with protruding corymbs and an ivy leaf on the side of the head, a slightly inclined face, a half open mouth and sunken eyes, perhaps filled with glass paste in the past.
These excavations are being carried out by the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali thanks to a sponsorship act by the Ministry of Culture of the State of Azerbaijan which donated one million euros.
They have the objective of removing part of the street segment of Via Alessandrina, for to connect the central sector of Piazza del Foro di Traiano with the eastern portico of the complex and the hemicycle of the Trajan’s Market. The intervention will thus allow citizens and tourists to appreciate the original extension of the part of the Forum concerned and to visually grasp its vastness.
Photo by Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali
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