Cool Finds

Two Well-Preserved Roman Busts Were Discovered Inside a Wine Vat in Israel Near the Capital City of a Roman Province

One is inscribed with the name “Lycurgus,” suggesting the bust may depict the legendary founder of ancient Sparta

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

June 22, 2026 9:51 a.m.

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Two remarkably well-preserved marble statues, dating back some 1,700 years to the Roman empire, were discovered inside an ancient wine vat near the coast of Israel along the Mediterranean Sea.

The centuries-old busts were found on the last day of an excavation of an ancient villa, an archaeological project meant primarily to clear space for the construction of a new high-speed railway. The pristine condition of the relics, which stand nearly two feet tall and weigh roughly 132 pounds apiece, shocked researchers.

Now, their discovery raises new questions regarding their origins and connection to the nearby historic port city of Caesarea, which became the capital of the Roman province of Judaea in 6 C.E.

“While digging the winepress, something was sticking out of the ground, and the workers called me,” says Michael Sorotskin, archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), in a statement. “There was a feeling that we were about to discover something that really shouldn’t be there. Suddenly we saw that this was not the usual pottery—it was marble! Then, slowly, slowly, the two statues were revealed. I’m still struggling to find the right words. It is simply wondrous.”

Found laying face-down in the ruins of the villa’s wine collection room, the two protomes—the term for sculptures of someone’s head and upper torso—appear to depict prominent figures from history. One bears the inscription “Lycurgus” across its side. This could be Lycurgus the founder of Sparta in the seventh Century B.C.E., or Lycurgus the fourth-century B.C.E. orator from Athens.

That one protome was made to honor the founder of Sparta is “a complicated thesis because historians only began mentioning him hundreds of years after he supposedly lived, so we don’t even know whether he was a real or fictional character,” Eliran Oren, one of the excavation’s directors, tells the Times of Israel’s Zev Stub. As for the orator hypothesis, the research “is still in its early stages,” Oren adds.

The identity of the second figure, who has a long beard and no other immediately distinguishable feature, is more nebulous. The best idea researchers have so far is that he may have been a philosopher or leading thinker, Haaretz’s Nir Hasson reports.

“This revelation is the kind of discovery that demonstrates to the public the power of archaeology—one moment we are working on a modern infrastructure project, and the next moment a window opens into the lives and cultural world of those who lived right here many hundreds of years ago,” Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, Israeli minister of heritage, says in a statement.

Understanding why the sculptures were evidently hidden is another point of intrigue for the archaeologists. Answers may come with a closer study of the villa where they were found.

The complex was likely constructed during the Byzantine era, between the fifth and seventh centuries C.E., when the busts were already hundreds of years old, per the Times. It is possible that the sculptures were on public display in a nearby building or bathhouse for the elite, or were owned personally by a wealthy resident of Caesarea. This was a common practice at the time, and similar statues in the region were discovered in recent decades, according to the IAA.

The archaeologists also hypothesize that regional conflict or a fear of theft may have spurred their delicate storage.

The two sculptures will be on public display this summer at Tel Aviv’s MUZA Eretz Israel Museum before they’re removed for cleaning, conservation and research.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” Oren and Avishag Reiss, also an excavation director, say in a statement. “It was very unexpected, but somehow, the really big discoveries always turn up on the excavation’s very last day.”

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.