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<< Other Photo Pages >> Lupercale Shrine - Cave or Rock Shelter in Italy in Lazio/Roma

Submitted by TheDruid-3X3 on Sunday, 23 December 2007  Page Views: 14545

Natural PlacesSite Name: Lupercale Shrine Alternative Name: Romulus and Remus Grotto, Basilica di Sant' Anasta, Romulus and Remus Cave
Country: Italy Region: Lazio/Roma Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Rome
Latitude: 41.895460N  Longitude: 12.482320E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4
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Lupercale Shrine
Lupercale Shrine submitted by TheDruid-3X3 : Site in Lazio/Roma Italy The Lupercale Shrine. Photo Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cave in Lazio/Roma. Sacred Cave of Rome's founders discovered, according to archaeologists. They say they have unearthed Lupercale - the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born.

The long-lost underground chamber was found beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) hill in the center of the city.

Archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Rome Municipality came across the 50-foot-deep (15-meter-deep) cavity while working to restore the decaying palace.

"We were drilling the ground near Augustus' residence to survey the foundations of the building when we discovered the cave," said Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the area.

"We knew from ancient reports that the Lupercale shouldn't be far from the Emperor's palace, but we didn't expect to find it. It was a lucky surprise.

"We didn't enter the cave but took some photos with a probe," Iacopi added.

"They show a richly decorated vault encrusted with mosaics and seashells, too rich to be part of a home. That's why we think it could be the ancient sanctuary, but we can't be sure until we find the entrance to the chamber."

More at National Geographic (Archive link from 2007)

Note: First Dec. 25 Xmas Tied to Pagan Shrine, see comment
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Lupercale Shrine
Lupercale Shrine submitted by TheDruid-3X3 : Site in Lazio/Roma Italy Lupercale Shrine Photo taken from Wikipedia. Credit: Director of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, Government of Italy (Vote or comment on this photo)

Lupercale Shrine
Lupercale Shrine submitted by TheDruid-3X3 : Site in Lazio/Roma Italy. The Opened Entrance to the Legendary Lupercalia taken from the BBC Article about it. Photo: Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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"Lupercale Shrine" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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'Mythical Roman cave' unearthed by Andy B on Monday, 14 February 2022
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From 2007: 'Mythical Roman cave' unearthed

Probes revealed a ceiling with a white eagle at the centre
Italian archaeologists say they have found the long-lost underground grotto where ancient Romans believed a female wolf suckled the city's twin founders.

The cave believed to be the Lupercal was found near the ruins of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine hill.

More at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7104330.stm

See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercal
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cavity Scanning for Historic Preservation, scan of the site by h_fenton on Wednesday, 26 December 2007
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For further phtographs, diagrams and plans (often at high resolution) of the possible Lupercale cave/shrine site see: Lupercale (Martin G Conde) - Flickr
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Cavity Scanning for Historic Preservation, scan of the site by Andy B on Sunday, 23 December 2007
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Yesterday Italy's Minister of National Heritage and Culture, Francesco Rutelli, unveiled a remarkable archaeological find. Several months ago, working to restore the palace of Emperor Augustus on Rome's Palatine Hill, archaeologists discovered a cave they now believe is Lupercale – the place where, according to legend, a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, Rome's twin founders. To begin investigating their fragile find, the archaeological team from the Rome Municipality's Cultural Heritage Department engaged Codevintec Italiana srl, Milan, which lowered an Optech CMS (Cavity Monitoring System) into the chamber and scanned the interior.

The scans revealed a cavern 6m 56cm wide by 7m 13cm high. The data showed that much of the cavity is filled with earth and debris from a partial collapse; investigators are still searching for the entrance. Use of the cavity scanner instead of Codevintec's ILRIS-3D terrestrial laser scanner was dictated by the obvious access restrictions – the need was maximum information about the cave's interior with minimum disturbance of the site.

More, with photos:
http://sparllc.com/archiveviewer.php?vol=05&num=25&file=vol05no25-01 (Archive link)
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Lupercale Shrine by Andy B on Sunday, 23 December 2007
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The church where the tradition of celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 may have begun was built near a pagan shrine as part of an effort to spread Christianity, a leading Italian scholar says.

Italian archaeologists last month unveiled an underground grotto that they believe ancient Romans revered as the place where a wolf nursed Rome's legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus.

A few feet from the grotto, or "Lupercale," the Emperor Constantine built the Basilica of St. Anastasia, where some believe Christmas was first celebrated on Dec. 25.

Constantine ended the frequent waves of anti-Christian persecutions in the Roman empire by making Christianity a lawful religion in 313. He played a key role in unifying the beliefs and practices of the early followers of Jesus.

In 325, he convened the Council of Nicaea, which fixed the dates of important Christian festivals. It opted to mark Christmas, then celebrated at varying dates, on Dec. 25 to coincide with the Roman festival celebrating the birth of the sun god, Andrea Carandini, a professor of archaeology at Rome's La Sapienza University, told reporters Friday.

The Basilica of St. Anastasia was built as soon as a year after the Nicaean Council. It probably was where Christmas was first marked on Dec. 25, part of broader efforts to link pagan practices to Christian celebrations in the early days of the new religion, Carandini said.

"The church was built to Christianize these pagan places of worship," he said. "It was normal to put a church near these places to try to 'save' them."

Rome's archaeological superintendent Angelo Bottini, who did not take part in Carandini's research, said that hypothesis was "evocative and coherent" and "helps us understand the mechanisms of the passage from paganism to Christianity."

Bottini and Carandini both said future digs could bolster the link between the shrine and the church if structures belonging to the "Lupercale" are found directly below the basilica.

The Basilica St. Anastasia was the first church to rise not on the ancient city's outskirts, but on the Palatine Hill, the palatial center of power and religion in imperial Rome, Carandini said. Though little known today, at the time of Constantine it was one of the most important basilicas for Christians in Rome, he said.

The "Lupercale" shrine — named after the "lupa," Latin for she-wolf — is 52 feet below ground. So far, archaeologists have only been able to see it by inserting probes and cameras that have revealed a vaulted ceiling decorated with colored marble and a white imperial eagle.

Though some experts have expressed doubts that the grotto is in fact the mythological nursery of Romulus and Remus, most archaeologists believe the shrine fits the descriptions found in ancient texts, and plans are being drawn up to excavate the structure further.

More, with photos at AP
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hvFJE-RapBi_EyUjCHhfGJRXSKeQD8TMMAJG0 (Archive link)
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