An Italian archaeologist claims to have found the temple of the ancient Roman god Quirinus under the head of state's official residence, the Palazzo del Quirinale.
Rome University Professor Andrea Carandini said ground-penetrating radar scans have uncovered a structure that matches ancient descriptions of the temple, especially those by Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio.
Carandini said the scans seem to show the porticos built when Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus had the temple renovated between 49BC and 16BC.
The porticos are below the so-called English garden of the Palazzo del Quirinale, which is currently occupied by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Carandini stressed that the site needs to be fully excavated before experts can be 100% sure the ruins are part of Quirinus' temple. Quirinus was an important early Roman god, portrayed as a bearded man with religious or military clothing. According to historians, he was originally a deity of the ancient Sabine people who once inhabited central Italy and who were assmiliated by Rome in about 290 BC.
According to Roman legend, the Quirinal Hill was the site of a small Sabine settlement.
The Sabines built a shrine to the god there, which explains where the Quirinal Hill - one of the seven hills of early Rome - got its name from.
After Romulus and Remus founded Rome, Quirinus was adopted by the Romans, who came to consider Quirinus the deified Romulus. A temple was built on the hill in his honour in the fourth century BC. Quirinus gradually lost his importance in the ancient Roman beliefs system, as mystic cults devoted to imported deities like Egyptian goddess Isis took hold. The Palazzo del Quirinale (or the Quirinal Palace) grew from a villa Pope Gregory XIII rented as a summer residence in the 16th century. It was a papal residence and housed pontifical state offices until 1870, when Rome was incorporated into the unified Italian state. An exhibition showing the results of Carandini's research runs at the palace June 3-30. The show features a model reconstruction of what Quirinus' temple would have looked like. Carandini said that six months of scanning under the palace had indicated the remains of other ancient buildings too.
