Roman Statues Found in Blue Grotto Cave

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Discovery

Sept. 28, 2009 -- A number of ancient Roman statues might lie beneath the turquoise waters of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri in southern Italy, according to an underwater survey of the sea cave.

Dating to the 1st century A.D., the cave was used as a swimming pool by the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C. - 37 A.D.), and the statues are probably depictions of sea gods.

"A preliminary underwater investigation has revealed several statue bases which might possibly hint to sculptures lying nearby," Rosalba Giugni, president of the environmentalist association, Marevivo, told Discovery News.

Carried out in collaboration with the archaeological superintendency of Pompeii, the Marevivo project aims at returning the Blue Grotto to its ancient glory by placing identical copies of Tiberius' statues where they originally stood.

Celebrated for the almost phosphorescent blue tones of the water and the mysterious silvery light flowing through fissures in the rocks, the Grotta Azzurra, as the cave is called in Italian, is one of the top attractions in Capri.
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The island was the capital of the Roman empire between 27 and 37 A. D., when Tiberius made a permanent home there to take advantage of the mild climate and its seclusion.

Dividing his time among 12 villas and orgiastic feasts, the emperor used to bath in the almost hallucinogenic blue light of the cave, swimming among naked boys and girls.

The story goes that those who displeased him were thrown into the sea from a rock near his Villa Jovis. Perched 1,000 feet above the sea with Mount Vesuvius's cone in the distance, this was the most magnificent of his residences on the island.

The Blue Grotto might have been equally amazing. In 1964, archaeologists recovered three statues from the sea bottom. One sculpture depicts the sea good Neptune, while the other two statues each represented the Greek god Triton, who was the son of Poseidon (Neptune, for the Romans).

According to the archaeologists, the position of the Tritons' shoulders (the arms are missing) would suggest that the marine creatures were blowing into large seashells as if they were trumpets.

Triton was known to carry a twisted conch shell, on which he blew to calm or raise the waves.

The recovered sculptures confirmed an account by Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (23 A.D. - 79 A.D.), who described the sea cave as populated by a Triton "playing on a shell."

Now on display at a museum in Anacapri, the three statues have provided a glimpse of the original setting of the Blue Grotto.

According to the reconstruction, a swarm of Tritons headed by Neptune might have lined the rocky walls of the cave. Bathed in the magic light of the grotto, the statues stood with waters at their knees.

During the Marevivo survey, aimed at finding the original bases of the three statues, divers found a total of seven bases at a depth of 150 meters (492 feet). This suggests that at least four other statues lie on the cave's sandy bottom.

"The sculptures were all placed at the same level. It is likely that other statues will come to light as the project continues with new underwater investigations," diver Vasco Fronzoni told Discovery News.

The Grotta Azzurra's reputation as a natural paradise was seriously threatened last month. The cave was closed twice due to fears that its waters had been contaminated by raw sewage.

Aimed at returning the grotto to its full ancient glory, the Marevivo project is also expected to pave the way to a more strict controls to preserve the natural wonder.

"By next summer, tourists to the Grotta Azzurra will enjoy a really unique experience," Giugni said.

Very interesting find.

[Duckie]

Okay, a question for knowledgeable people like Thanas, and Thanas also. Why do arms fall off of Graeco-Roman statues? Do we have any statues where the arms survived? Do heads fall off too?

Is it something about their construction or the like?

[Rogue 9]

I'm not particularly knowledgeable about statues, but it seems to me that the joining of the arms to the torso is an obvious structural weak point.

[weemadando]

Rogue pretty much nailed it.

If the statues were one piece jobs then the arms are naturally more prone to fractures as it's a narrow point in the stone.

For multipiece statues, the arms were often one of the separate pieces and thus would often be amongst the first to go.

Also - for looters/not-late-20th-Century-Archaeologists if they couldn't get the whole statue then they'd take what they could get - even if it was just a broken off arm (though heads were the most popular choice).

[Bounty]

Okay, a question for knowledgeable people like Thanas, and Thanas also. Why do arms fall off of Graeco-Roman statues? Do we have any statues where the arms survived? Do heads fall off too?

Is it something about their construction or the like?

The still-armed statues are generally the ones who were never "lost", but stayed on display somewhere. If a statue gets buried, extremities are the first to go - arms, to a lesser extent heads, because those are the structural weak points as said above. The sacking of Roman cities, the early Christians' dislike of statues of pagan emperors, and the looting of statues for lime and bronze didn't help much either.

[Thanas]

Most points have been answered already, but with regards to the heads - the Romans were incredibly pragmatic people. The heads of most Imperial statues were actually exchangable. After the death of an emperor, you really have to imagine slaves walking around taking the old heads off and exchanging them with new ones. There are statues existing that show exactly that the head of an older emperor was exchanged for a new one.

The head was supposed to be not fixed therefore in most representative statues, as gravity would hold it in place anyway and fixing it would defeat the purpose of exchanging it.

[Ypoknons]

Does anyone feel uneasy about the commercialization of this site (if it's OK to talk about this in history). Don't get me wrong - I think swimming here would be the coolest thing ever - but I worry about mismanagement and especially overcrowding. How well is this usually done in Italy? I've seen tons of terrible and tacky reconstructions in the PRC, but I'd figure that work is relatively poorly done - the cultural revolution robbed China of its history and luxury.

[Garibaldi]

I was at the Blue Grotto a few years ago; basically you hire a rowboat, you pay the boatman, he pays a toll at the entrance to the Grotto, and as he rows you around the Grotto he sings some kind of old Italian sea shanty. You can't actually swim there, as far as I know. It's a little tacky, but Capri is basically one big high-end shopping center anyway. Certainly nothing as tacky as, say, Lijiang (to use a PRC example).

[Dahak]

Does anyone feel uneasy about the commercialization of this site (if it's OK to talk about this in history). Don't get me wrong - I think swimming here would be the coolest thing ever - but I worry about mismanagement and especially overcrowding. How well is this usually done in Italy? I've seen tons of terrible and tacky reconstructions in the PRC, but I'd figure that work is relatively poorly done - the cultural revolution robbed China of its history and luxury.

As pointed out below, it is already commercialised to the fullest. The boats usually are quite crowded and expensive, and the singing is annoying