Work on Rome's Palatine turns up treasures

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Work on Rome's paltine turns up treasures

Grotto may be site where ancient Romans believed wolf nursed twins

Ariel David, Associated Press
Published: Wednesday, January 24, 2007

ROME -- Work on Rome's Palatine Hill has turned up a trove of discoveries, including what might be the underground grotto where ancient Romans believed a wolf nursed the city's legendary founders Romulus and Remus.

Archeologists gathered Tuesday at a conference to save crumbling monuments on the Palatine discussed findings of studies on the luxurious imperial homes threatened by collapse and poor maintenance that have forced the closure of much of the hill to the public.

While funds are still scarce, authorities plan to reopen some key areas of the honeycombed hill to tourists by the end of the year, including frescoed halls in the palaces of the Emperor Augustus and his wife Livia.

After being closed for decades, parts of the palaces will be opened for guided tours while restoration continues, officials said.

It was during the restoration of the palace of Rome's first emperor that workers taking core samples from the hill found what could be a long-lost place of worship believed by ancient Romans to be the cave where a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the abandoned twin sons of the god of war Mars.

Irene Iacopi, the archeologist in charge of the Palatine and the nearby Roman Forum, said experts used a probe to peer into the 16-metre-deep cavity and found a vaulted space decorated with frescoes, niches and seashells. It is too early to say for sure whether the worship place known as lupercale-- from lupa, Latin for wolf -- has been found but Roman texts state it was close to Augustus's palace and the emperor had restored it, Iacopi said.

"It was a very important symbolic place and we believe that it was well preserved," said Giovanna Tedone, an architect leading the work at the palace.

Archeologists are now looking for the grotto's entrance, she said.

Only one-quarter of the Palatine's nearly 500 buildings are above ground and just 40 per cent of the hill's 27 hectares can be visited.

The latest closure came in November 2005, when a 16th-century wall collapsed one night in a well-visited area near the Emperor Tiberius's palace.

source: Work on Rome\'s Palatine turns up treasures