Head of Ennius: Where is the Missing Head of Roman General Scipio Africanus?
From The Observatory
Source: Dig Labs Project
By examining records and the "Ennius" attribution, we are piecing together the identities of the figures who guarded Rome’s most famous military dynasty.
“Head of Ennius: Where is the Missing Head of Roman General Scipio Africanus?” by Dig Labs Contributors is licensed by the Observatory under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
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Introduction
The tomb of Scipio Africanus, the Roman general who defeated Hannibal, vanished for nearly 1,700 years until its rediscovery in the 18th century and subsequent excavation in the 1930s. During the 1934 excavations, a secret chamber was breached by thieves using professional tools, who targeted the statues decorating the family vault. This investigation tracks the disappearance of two unique artifacts: a 24-centimeter tuff head and a second, more mysterious marble head that vanished almost immediately after its discovery.
The tuff head was long misidentified as the poet Ennius, but historical records from Livy clarify that Ennius’s statue was made of marble, not volcanic tuff. The second head, carved in marble, remains one of archaeology's most frustrating losses; it was stolen so quickly that it is only known today through a single surviving photograph. By re-examining these site records and the "Ennius" attribution, we are piecing together the true identities of the figures who once guarded the entrance to Rome’s most famous military dynasty.
