It’s being claimed that a cherished Italian myth was shattered yesterday when the final blow was delivered to the origin story of Rome’s most famous statue, the Lupa Capitolina.

Experts have been chipping away for some time at claims that an iconic bronze showing a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus dates back to the 5th Century BC. The Romulus and Remus parts of the statue had already been dismissed as later works and doubts about the Lupa have been raised due to the method used to create it, which wasn’t thought to be known in the 5th century BC.

Yesterday Adriano La Regina, a former heritage official in Rome, said 20 tests had demonstrated that it was definitely a 13th century creation in an article in La Repubblica. La Regina says that the analysis was conducted last year, but the results were never published.

According to his article a battery of tests proves the 13th century date of the statue.

The Guardian and the Independent highlight his statement that radiocarbon tests were used in their coverage. Can you radiocarbon date bronze? It would seem unlikely to me but I’m open to correction in the comments. Anyway Rome e-magazine Eternally Cool notes that La Regina also says thermoluminescence tests were performed, which seems more feasible.

As previously noted on the Great Beyond and in the pages of Science though, the “lupa” that raised Romulus and Remus was probably not a wolf but a “very prosperous sex worker”.

Image: via Wikipedia