Italian archaeologists have discovered 24 well-preserved bronze statues from the Ancient Roman period in the perimeter of some thermal baths in Tuscany, experts classify the discovery as “exceptional”, reports Reuters and Agerpres.

The statues were found over the past two weeks in San Casciano dei Bagna, a hilltop town about 100 miles north of Rome, where archaeologists have been exploring the ancient ruins for the past three years.

“This is a very important, exceptional discovery,” Jacopo Tabolli, a lecturer at the University of Siena who is coordinating the archaeological project, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Tabolli says the statues, which Italian news agency ANSA says are 2,300 years old, adorned the sanctuary before being immersed in thermal waters as part of a ritual “probably around the 1st century AD”.

“You give to the water because you hope that the water will give you something,” the expert explained this ritual.

The statues discovered by archaeologists belonged to the Roman elite

The statues were covered with approximately 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins, and the warm waters of San Casciano helped preserve them “almost as they were the day they were submerged,” Tabolli said.

The archaeologist, an expert in Etruscan and Italian archaeology, said his team had discovered 24 large statues, along with several other figurines, and noted that it was unusual for them to be made of bronze instead of terracotta.

Tabolli believes that this detail suggests that the statues came from what he called an “elite settlement.”

According to ANSA, the statues have been transferred to a restoration laboratory in Grosseto, another town in Tuscany, but will eventually return to San Casciano dei Bagna to be displayed in a new museum.