I bronzi votivi dal santuario di Ercole ad Alba Fucens

Between 2006 and 2009 the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Abruzzo carried out a series of new archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Alba Fucens. Research also extended to the sanctuary of Hercules, and a great many small votive bronzes were found in the area. More than 60 items were recovered between complete and fragmentary examples. This group of items comprised about 50 representations of Hercules, 2 female/male offerors, 7 clubs, 1 bovine and a few other fragments. According to the published information, the votive bronzes had been deposited in an area carefully organised when the sanctuary underwent reorganisation in the first half of the 1st century BC. This paper examines the votive bronzes found in the Sanctuary of Hercules at Alba Fucens with two main aims: classification with an ‘artisanal’-oriented approach and an attempt to analyse these types of items adopting an economic perspective.