**5. TL Dating of Clay Cores: A Reappraisal of Some Case Studies**

As mentioned in the introduction, few TL studies of the clay cores of bronze statues have been devoted to determining their authenticity, rather than calculating an absolute dating. Further attempts devoted to dating soon enlightened a series of difficulties, complications and limiting factors, as mentioned above. However, in some favourable or particularly meaningful cases, very important results have been achieved.

We report here three case studies whose results have been discussed in the past and have been recently re-considered, obtaining information more relevant than that from past-published data. They regard (i) the famous *Lupa Capitolina*, that has been always considered as the symbol of the Rome itself, (ii) a bronze horse in natural dimensions, exposed in the Musei Capitolini, like the *Lupa*, that could be a Greek original or a Roman copy, such as many bronze statues in Rome, and iii) the statue of San Peter in the Vatican, whose chronological assignment has been long under discussion.
