Votive Stones of Pesaro

The Ancient Votive Stones of Pesaro are 13 sandstone rocks that were unearthed in 1737 on a Pesaro, Italy farm field owned by Patrician Annibale degli Abati Olivieri. Oliverio dug up the stones at the site of his newly discovered Lucus Pisaurensis Sacred Grove on his property at Il Pignocco in Pesaro.

These votive stones were incised in a pre-Estrucan script, each bearing the name of an early Roman god.APOLLO, the Sun-God; MAT[ER]-MATVTA, an ancient semone divinity of luci; FIDE, an ancient goddess of High Divinity status, and IVNONII (Juno), a goddess of multiple origin myths, are a few of the names inscripted on the stones. They are estimated to date from ca.400BC, a time when Pesaro was called by its Latin name of Pisaurum.

The stones are on display at the Biblioteca Oliveriana, a Library and Museum in Pesaro housing the collections of Annibale degli Abati Olivieri, Giovanni Battista Passeri, and Giulio Perticari.

Pesaro (Italian), fr. Pisaurum (latin), pis (pi π, plural) + (aurum, reflecting gold).

Lucus Pisaurensis: The Sacred Grove of Il Pignocco in Pesaro, Italy, discovered by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri, http://www.ilpignocco.it/en/about-us/lucus-pisaurensis/

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