Italian archaeologists have unveiled an exciting new find from the Roman Forum which they say could be the lost shrine dedicated 2,600 years ago to Romulus, Rome’s legendary founder and first king.
In an excavated space beneath the Curia Julia, or ancient senate house, is something resembling a stone bath that archaeologists say is a sarcophagus, or stone coffin.
There is also a cylindrical stone block, possibly an altar.
Both items are made of tuff, carved from the Capitoline Hill that overlooks the Forum, and which is home to today’s City Hall.
Ms Fortini said no-one is hypothesising that the sarcophagus ever actually contained the bones of Romulus who, with his twin Remus, established the city near the Tiber River in around 753 BC and founded the kingdom of Rome.
It is likely to date to the 6th century BC, some 200 years after Romulus’s time.
“We don’t know whether Romulus physically existed” the way he was described in legends, Ms Fortini said.
Alfonsina Russo, the archaeologist in charge of the site, noted that according to some ancient traditions, Romulus was killed and chopped to pieces, or ascended into heaven.
“Therefore this cannot be his tomb, but it is very likely, we believe, that this is a memorial site, a cenotaph,” Ms Russo added.
Legend holds that Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf as babies, but later Romulus killed his twin brother in a dispute over the founding of Rome.
