---
title: "Lead Venus Is the First Trace of Religious Life at a Roman Village in Hungary"
description: "Metal-detector surveys at Pilisszentiván, northwest of Budapest, turned up the figurine during a fourth season of excavations."
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-01T22:09:05Z
modified: 2026-10-02T02:12:38Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/lead-venus-is-the-first-trace-of-religious-life-at-a-roman-v-948186
language: en
tags: ["archaeology", "history", "venus", "roman", "religion", "europe"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Lead Venus Is the First Trace of Religious Life at a Roman Village in Hungary

*Metal-detector surveys at Pilisszentiván, northwest of Budapest, turned up the figurine during a fourth season of excavations.*

By rews desk · October 1, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/lead-venus-is-the-first-trace-of-religious-life-at-a-roman-v-948186

## In brief

- A lead Venus Pudica figurine is the first religious find at the Roman village of Pilisszentiván, Hungary
- An Eötvös Loránd University team led by Bence Simon has dug the site for four consecutive seasons
- The 2026 season, which ended Sept. 23, also produced a bronze mirror fragment, iron tools, brooches and coins
- A collapse layer at Building E held near-complete pottery vessels and an almost intact pair of iron tongs
- Analysis continues, and the team hopes to return to the settlement next year

Archaeologists using metal detectors at a Roman-era village in Hungary found a small lead figurine of the goddess Venus in September, the first evidence of religious life identified at the site in four years of digging.

The figurine depicts Venus Pudica, one of the best-known forms of the Roman goddess, and it surfaced at Pilisszentiván-Hárs-erdő, northwest of Budapest, in the rural territory of Aquincum, once among the most important Roman centers in the region. Eötvös Loránd University said it is the first find from the settlement with a religious association.

A team from the university’s Department of Ancient Archaeology, led by Bence Simon, has excavated the settlement for four consecutive seasons. Earlier work uncovered stone-founded houses, large amounts of pottery, coins, tools and signs that at least part of the village supported workshop activity. The 2026 season, which ended on Sept. 23, concentrated on buildings around the Hársas spring, aiming to fix their boundaries more precisely and learn how different parts of the settlement were used.

Until this year, the site had yielded an increasingly detailed record of how its inhabitants lived and worked, but nothing that spoke to belief. The Venus changes that, and she had company. The season also produced a fragment of a leaded bronze mirror, iron tools, brooches and coins.

Some of the most informative finds came from what the team calls Building E, where excavators exposed a stone-paved surface along the edge of the living quarters, much like features beside other buildings at the site. The archaeologists believe the area may have been tied to economic or working activities. Earlier research showed the building was larger than first thought and was abandoned around the beginning of the third century A.D.

In the northern part of the newly opened area, the team came on an undisturbed collapse layer, the kind of deposit that can leave objects close to where they were last used before a building fell. It held a large quantity of pottery, some vessels nearly whole, and an almost completely preserved pair of iron tongs. Finds like these may help determine what went on in and around the building.

Analysis of the season’s finds is continuing, and the researchers hope to return to the settlement next year.