Saturday, November 06, 2021

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Slave room discovered at Pompeii in 'rare' find

  
Slave room discovered at Pompeii in 'rare' find



The little slave room contains three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest


The 16-square metre (170-square feet) room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom
 (AFP/Handout)

Ella IDE
Sat, November 6, 2021

Pompeii archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed the remains of a "slave room" in an exceptionally rare find at a Roman villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius' eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.

The little room with three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest was discovered during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just a few hundred metres from the rest of the ancient city.

An almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered here at the start of this year, and archaeologists said Saturday that the room likely housed slaves charged with maintaining and prepping the chariot.


"This is a window into the precarious reality of people who rarely appear in historical sources, written almost exclusively by men belonging to the elite," said Pompeii's director general Gabriel Zuchtriegel.

The "unique testimony" into how "the weakest in the ancient society lived... is certainly one of the most exciting discoveries in my life as an archaeologist," he said in a press release.

Pompeii was buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing those who hadn't managed to leave the city in time. They were either crushed by collapsing buildings or killed by thermal shock.

- 'Rare insight' -

The 16-square metre (170-square feet) room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom: as well as three beds -- one of which was child sized -- there were eight amphorae, stashed in a corner.

The wooden chest held metal and fabric objects that seem to be part of the harnesses of the chariot horses, and a chariot shaft was found resting on one of the beds.

The remains of three horses were found in a stable in a dig earlier this year.

"The room grants us a rare insight into the daily reality of slaves, thanks to the exceptional state of preservation of the room," the Pompeii archaeological park said.

Experts had been able to make plaster casts of the beds and other objects in perishable materials which left their imprint in the cinerite -- the rock made of volcanic ash -- that covered them, it said.

- Slave 'family' -


The beds were made of several roughly worked wooden planks, which could be adjusted according to the height of the person who used them.

The webbed bases of the beds were made of ropes, covered by blankets.

While two were around 1.7 metres long, one measured just 1.4 metres, and may therefore have belonged to a child.

The archaeological park said the three slaves may have been a family.

Archaeologists found several personal objects under the beds, including amphorae for private things, ceramic jugs and what might be a chamber pot.

The room was lit by a small upper window, and there are no traces or wall decorations, just a mark believed to have been left by a lantern hung on a wall.

The excavation is part of a programme launched in 2017 aimed at fighting illegal activity in the area, including tunnel digging to reach artefacts that can be sold on illicit markets.

The Villa of Civita Giuliana had been the target of systematic looting for years. There was evidence some of the "archaeological heritage" in this so-called Slave Room had also been lost to looters, the park said.

Damage by grave robbers in the villa had been estimated so far at almost two million euros ($2.3 million), it added.

ide/mbx

Discovery of Pompeii slaves’ room sheds rare light on real Roman life

Cramped room contains beds, chamber pot and other items used in slave family’s ‘precarious’ existence


Beds, pots and other possessions in the well-preserved room in Villa Giuliana. Photograph: Getty Images

Angela Giuffrida, Rome correspondent
Sat 6 Nov 2021

A perfectly intact room that was lived in by slaves has been discovered in a suburb of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Three wooden beds, a chamber pot and a wooden chest containing metal and fabric items were among the objects found in the cramped living quarters of what was a sprawling villa in Civita Giuliana, about 700 metres north-west of Pompeii’s city walls.

The discovery comes almost a year after the remains of two victims of the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, believed to have been a master and his slave, were found in the same villa.

A chariot shaft was also found in the room, which archaeologists said had served as the humble lodgings of, possibly, a small family who carried out day-to-day work in the villa, including preparing and maintaining the chariot.


Human remains in tomb are best-preserved ever found in Pompeii

The only natural light in the 16-square-metre space came from a small upper window, and there is no evidence of any wall decorations.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of Pompeii’s archaeological park, said the discovery was “exceptional”, especially as it gives a rare insight “into the precarious reality of people who seldom appear in historical sources, that were written almost exclusively by men belonging to the elite”.

Several personal objects were found under the beds, including large amphorae, used for storing personal possessions, and ceramic jugs. The three beds, one child-size, were made of rope and wooden planks.

“What is most striking is the cramped and precarious nature of this room, which is something between a dormitory and a storage room,” said Zuchtriegel. “It is certainly one of the most exciting discoveries of my life as an archaeologist, even without the presence of great ‘treasures’. The true treasure here is the human experience – in this case of the most vulnerable members of ancient society – to which this room is a unique testimony.”

Excavations on the site of the Civita Giuliana villa began in 2017 and several relics have been found, including a ceremonial chariot and a stable containing the remains of three harnessed horses. In May, three frescoes looted from the villa in 2012 were returned to the archaeological park.

Casts were created of the remains of the two Vesuvius victims found in the villa last November. The two men, lying close together, are believed to have escaped the initial phase of the eruption, when the city was blanketed in volcanic ash and pumice, only to then be killed by a further blast the following day.

The partially mummified remains of a freed slave found at Pompeii’s Porta Sano. Photograph: Cesare Abbate

Experts said the younger man, who was probably between 18 and 25, had several compressed vertebrae, which led them to believe that he was a manual labourer or slave. The older man, aged between 30 and 40, had a stronger bone structure, particularly around his chest, and was wearing a tunic. They were found lying in what would have been a corridor in the villa.

In August, the partially mummified remains, including hair and bones, of a former slave who rose through the social ranks were found in a tomb at the necropolis of Porta Sarno, one of the main gates into Pompeii. The tomb is believed to date from the decade before the city was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Last month, the partially mutilated remains of a man buried by the eruption were found on what would have been the beach at Herculaneum, the ancient Roman town a few miles north of Pompeii. Archaeologists said the man, believed to have been between 40 and 45, was killed just steps from the water as he tried to flee the eruption.

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