Archaeology of Thermalism : New studies on healing waters

Engramma 214 presents the results of a new season of studies focused on the archaeology of thermal sites. The narrative of this first volume merges ancient votive religion with thermal medicine in context and follows a chronological and spatial order. Different papers address the preliminary results of the excavation at Bagno Grande in San Casciano dei Bagni (Italy) (Jean Turfa; Emanuele Mariotti; Edoardo Vanni; Mattia Bischeri). This case study becomes an input to revise past and forgotten excavations in Tuscany (Jacopo Tabolli, Debora Barbagli, Cesare Felici; Marco Pacifici) and to reconsider the votive role of bodies in ancient sanctuaries (Olivier de Cazanove). From Etruscan to Roman, papers discuss places, objects and written evidence (Maddalena Bassani), with a focus on the Euganean area both under the perspective of archaeologists and architects (Maddalena Bassani, Maria Elena De Venanzi) and biologists and medical doctors (Fabrizio Caldara, Antonio Chiappetta, Pietro Scimemi). The article by Silvia González-Soutelo and Laura García-Juan proposes a broad methodological approach to the study of thermo-mineral sites between Antiquity and the present day. Back to San Casciano dei Bagni, the last part of the volume presents the encountering of the thermo-mineral spring of Bagno Grande in the design of the exhibition at the Archaeological National Museum of Naples (Massimo Osanna, Jacopo Tabolli).