In July 2012, an investigation by the Guardia di Finanza led to the recovery of an important votive deposit in the territory between Genzano di Roma and Lanuvio, c. 30 km south-east of Rome.
Excavations were immediately carried out, a collaboration between Rome La Sapienza University, the Civic Museum of Lanuvio and the Archaeological Superintendency of Lazio, financed by Lanuvio town council, leading to the recovery of several hundred ex-voto datable to between the 4th and the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C.

The area is characterised by the widespread presence of cult sites, which attest the religiosity linked to the territory.
Recent archaeological finds suggest the votive hoard from Pantanacci may be identified with the famous cave of the snake sacred to Juno Sospita mentioned by Propertius (IV 8, 3-14) and Aelianus (Nat. anim. 11, 16). Therefore, it may be suggested that there is a link between this votive hoard and the nearby sanctuary of Juno Sospita, the polyadic divinity of Lanuvium, situated on the city’s acropolis.

The importance of the Pantanacci hoard lies in the fact that it constitutes one of the rare examples of a primary deposit, not the secondary deposition of cult objects. Of particular interest is the relationship between the votive materials (some of which relate to particular pathologies, such as those of the mouth) and the place of deposition: a cave fed by a series of tunnels, some natural, some man-made. This situation confirms what has already been documented in various votive deposits, also in the nearby Pontine plain, the close relationship between drainage tunnels and “sacredness”.