Archaeologists in Israel uncover 1,700-year-old Roman-era statues buried face down

Two statues were discovered near Binyamina, Israel, according to a June 15 press release from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

Archaeologists were digging ahead of construction of a coastal high-speed railway when they found two marble statues in the wine collection pit of a Roman-Byzantine winepress, the IAA said.

One of the statues bears a Greek inscription with the name "Lycurgus," according to officials.

Michael Sorotskin, an IAA archaeologist who helped find the statues, called the discovery "simply wondrous."

"While digging the winepress, something was sticking out of the ground, and the workers called me," Sorotskin said in the release. "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," he added. "Then, slowly, slowly, the two statues were revealed. I'm still struggling to find the right words."

"At present, it is not known why the statues were hidden here - perhaps to preserve them," Oren and Reiss said in a joint statement.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.

"It was very unexpected, but somehow, the really big discoveries always turn up on the excavation's very last day."

Peter Gendelman, a Caesarea region expert from the IAA, said the discovery was the first of its kind in roughly three decades.

The "Lycurgus" statue could depict two different men, one named Lycurgus of Sparta and another named Lycurgus of Athens, Gendelman said.

"Possibly this statue may prove to be one of these two historical figures, but our research is just beginning," he said.

"Not far from the discovery site, remains of a bathhouse were previously uncovered, and it is possible that the statues decorated a luxurious villa of a Caesarea resident," he said.

Researchers are cleaning and conserving the statues before analyzing them further in hopes of determining exactly whom they depict.

The discovery is the latest in a series of notable archaeological finds announced by Israeli researchers this year.