ROME— Rome's legendary Capitoline Wolf is apparently 1,700 to 1,800 years younger than originally thought, the Guardian reports. The life-size bronze statue of a she-wolf sucking Romulus and Remus was, until two years ago, generally recognized as an Etruscan statue from the early 5th century B.C; however, archaeologist and professor Adriano La Regina published an article in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica yesterday publicizing the results of radio-carbon tests from last year that date the wolf back to only the Middle Ages — specifically, the 13th century A.D.

Eighteenth-century German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann first placed the wolf in the Etruscan period, basing his attribution on the depiction of the animal's fur. His view was generally accepted, with a few objections by experts that were largely ignored until 2006, when Anna Maria Carruba, an Italian art historian, published a detailed critique of Winckelmann's theory. She argued that the casting method used for the statue was unknown in classical times, and that a number of artist's marks on the piece were more typical of the Middle Ages.

Last year, about 20 radio-carbon tests were run on the statue at the University of Salerno, with the results proving Carruba's argument. La Regina notes in his article that the results of the tests were revealed last October, but civic authorities in Rome failed to publicize them.