While looking for more near contemporary accounts of the Vicarello findings I learned about Lago degli Idoli located in the shadow of Mount Falterona, east of Florence and west of Rimini. The wikipedia page is fairly decent as things go so I won’t re iterate the content there.
The focus of this testimony is the presence in the votive deposit of aes rude. The 1838 reports says aes rude ranged from 2 ounces to 2 pounds in size and amounted to 300 pounds in total!
The type of other votive bronzes are all described in the report. Many figurines but also many anatomical pieces, esp. limbs. Zero mention of coins.
The 1842 report is more tantilizing with its reference to rectangular monetary pieces described as aes grave among the aes rude.
Still in 2005 aes rude was appearing in excavations as the site:
Fedeli, Luca. “Stia (AR): lago degli Idoli: campagna di scavo 2005.” Stia (AR): lago degli Idoli: campagna di scavo 2005 (2005): 164-167.
But more interesting is the three pieces of what is called aes signatum and the 20 coins:
I can’t find any other details and that frustrates me…
| Chiarantini, Laura, Marco Benvenuti, M. Tognelli, F. Lurci, and Pilario Costagliola. “Indagine archeometrica di manufatti metallici provenienti dal Lago degli Idoli (AR).” In Atti della Giornata di studio” Gli scavi e le indagini ambientali nel sito archeologico del Lago degli Idoli”, pp. 97-103. Comunità Montana del Casentino, 2007. [ILL ordered] |
Benvenuti, Marco, Laura Chiarantini, Pilario Costagliola, A. Dini, I. Giunti, Lorenzo Giuntini, and Mirko Massi. “An investigation of unworked lumps of Cu-based materials (“Aes Rude”?) from two Etruscan sites.” In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference” Archaeometallurgy in Europe”, vol. 2, pp. 0-0. Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia, 2007. [ILL ordered ; abstract]
BM holdings of artifacts from this votive deposit
Liv Mariah Yarrow 