Lucus Furrinae

The grove (lucus) was first sacred to Furrina, an indigenous Italic deity with a flamen and a festival. Her association with this grove dates at least to the regal period (753–509 BCE). From the first through fourth centuries CE, a variety of Syrian cults (including Jupiter Maleciabrudes [CIL VI 36792] and Jupiter Heliopolitanus [CIL VI 36791]) made incursions into the sanctuary and coexisted with the Roman deity, going through three further stages of spatial development. In the Flavian period, a Syrian cult made an incursion into this space and its members built an open-air structure and a sacred pond in the grove. Epigraphic evidence shows that Syrian cult worship expanded in the second through fourth centuries CE and coexisted with the worship of Furrina, and that the sanctuary retained and expanded upon the plan of the earlier first-century structure, adding additional boundaries consisting of amphorae. The final stage featured a built structure that greatly differs from the earlier forms, including a built-up “basilical” space at the west end and a triangular altar space at the east end. In this altar area excavators found a  bronze statue of a youth with snakes curled around it (possibly identified as Osiris) buried with eggs, seeds, and roots. The sanctuary was abandoned in the late fourth or early fifth century CE.

Cardinal Ottoboni performed amateur excavations in 1720, but the first real excavations occurred under Paul Gauckler in 1909. Since 2005, Christophe J. Goddard has been overseeing the ongoing excavations of the site.