Pompeii slave room found - revealing secrets (Italy) - BBC News - 6th November 2021
Well archaeologists excavating in the Roman site of Pompeii in Italy have announced the discovery
of a room used by slaves which they say gives an extraordinary insight into their daily lives.
Now the well-preserved room contains three beds and a wooden chest. Nina Nagy reports.
A window into how slaves lived in ancient Pompeii. It's a cramped space with three wooden beds.
One smaller bed is possibly a child's indicating the room could have housed a family.
The room was found during an excavation of a large villa on the outskirts of Pompeii.
The city was engulfed in a volcanic eruption nearly 2,000 years ago
burying it and its residents in ash.
It's an exceptional cross-section of the life and daily work of a part of the ancient population
that's little known through the official sources that are always seen from the point of view of
the elites and here instead we see the lives of slaves, servants, people of a very low social status.
The room is exceptionally well preserved. There are earthenware jars, ceramic jugs and a wooden
chest containing metal and fabric objects thought to be part of a horse's harness.
Carves were created of the perishable items using impressions they had left
in the hardened ash. The ruins of Pompeii remain a rich source for archaeologists.
A city frozen in time, it is also one of Italy's most visited tourist attractions.
Nina Nanji, BBC News.