Roman-age head of Venus discovered in the centre of Chieti.

A Roman-era marble head portraying the goddess Venus has been discovered during excavations ahead of redevelopment works in the centre of Chieti, a city in the Abruzzo region of central Italy.

The head of Venus, christened by local media as the “Venere teatina” on account of Chieti's Latin name Teate, is believed to date to the first century AD, reports ArtsLife.

Carved from precious Parian marble, the small head has a similar hairstyle to the Crouching Aphrodite by the third-century BC Greek sculptor Doidalsas, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

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The marble head, which falls within the tradition of smaller scale reproductions of Hellenistic sculptures, is one of the most extraordinary finds over the last few weeks in Piazza S. Giustino.

Other discoveries include traces of architecture from the Roman, Republican and Imperial eras as well as mediaeval masonry, a grain silo, cisterns and the foundations of pillars.

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Despite the finds, however, there will be no archaeological park on the site, where the redevelopment project is set to continue.

Rosaria Mencarelli, the superintendent of Chieti and Pescara, told ANSA that all the "appropriate research" and surveys had been carried out but that there were no discoveries that "would justify a different design, a change of project."

Photo credit: Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell'Abruzzo.