18 September 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

‘Bakery Prison’ found in Ancient Rome’s Pompeii

Archaeologists working on the ongoing excavations in Region IX, Insula 10, near the slopes of the ancient city of Pompeii, have uncovered a bakery prison where enslaved workers and blindfolded donkeys were confined and exploited to produce bread.

The latest discovery at Pompeii shows the cruelest side of Ancient Roman society. A cramped room with no view of the outside world and small windows high in the wall with iron bars was uncovered during the excavations, which are part of a larger project to secure the slopes around the unexplored areas of the city.

In an article just published by the official E-Journal of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, the discoverers accurately describe this claustrophobic facility as “a bakery-prison, where enslaved workers and donkeys were confined and exploited to grind the grain needed to make bread.”

The bakery hardly resembled a modern bread-making facility. The tiny windows that have been found in the room, pierced by iron bars, let in a meager light and did not open to the outside, but to another room of the dwelling. Inside, enslaved men and women and animals lived, slept and ground grain to make bread together.

The donkeys had to walk in a circle for hours, both day and night, blindfolded, to move the millstone, accompanied by a person who, in addition to pushing the millstone, had to whip the animal and monitor the milling process, adding grain and taking out the flour when it was time. The pavement still preserves the notches that were made to prevent the beasts from slipping and that, at the same time, traced a kind of circular itinerary.

Photo: Pompeii Archaeological Park

The ancient ruined bakery, which was still presumably in use when the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in a mountain of ash and lava in 79 AD, reveals the extreme cruelty for which the Roman Empire was known.

“It is a space in which we have to imagine the presence of people of servile status … it is the most shocking side of ancient slavery” and its “brute violence”, said Pompeii’s director Gabriel Zuchtriegel.

The management of the Pompeii Archaeological Park has explained that the brutality of the working conditions in the mills of antiquity was already documented in the work The Golden Ass, also known as the Metamorphoses by the writer Apuleius, who lived in the 2nd century AD.

The grim reality of daily life in this space complements the narrative presented in the upcoming exhibition, “The Other Pompeii: Ordinary Lives in the Shadow of Vesuvius,” opening on 15 December at the Palestra Grande in Pompeii.

The exhibition sheds light on the forgotten individuals, such as slaves, who, though often overlooked by historical sources, constituted the majority of the population, significantly contributing to the economy, culture, and social fabric of Roman civilization.

Pompeii Archaeological Park

Cover Photo: The bakery prison seen from above. Photo: Pompeii Archaeological Park

Related Articles

Archaeologists Found 1,600-year-old Burials of Noble Women and Gold Jewelry in the Mountains of Crimea

4 December 2024

4 December 2024

Archaeologists found burials of noble women filled with gold and silver jewelry in the Crimean mountains in the Bakhchisaray region...

Ancient Roman city of Pompeii, archaeologists have unearthed a fresco depicting the Greek mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle

2 March 2024

2 March 2024

Archaeologists excavating a house adjacent to the House of Leda in Insula 6, Regio V, in the ancient Roman city...

Roman Canal and Road Uncovered in The Netherlands near UNESCO heritage sites

30 July 2021

30 July 2021

Dutch archaeologists that a canal and gravel road thought to have been built and used by the Roman military have...

Leptis Magna was once one of the most important African cities of the Roman Empire

28 September 2021

28 September 2021

The ancient city of Leptis Magna, as was its name in antiquity, was once one of the most prominent and...

Shetland Discoveries Seem Close to Uncovering Ancient Viking Capital

4 July 2021

4 July 2021

Important discoveries were made on the last day of excavations to find the ancient Viking capital of Shetland, through the...

1,600-Year-Old Rare Greek Letter-Shaped Weights and Scale Found in Türkiye’s Uzuncaburç

9 July 2025

9 July 2025

Archaeologists have made a significant discovery at the ancient city of Uzuncaburç in Türkiye’s southern Mersin province — a complete...

Medieval gold ‘lynx’ earrings from Ani Ruins

29 December 2022

29 December 2022

A pair of lynx-shaped gold earrings have been unearthed near the ruins of Ani, the once great metropolis known as...

Have We Found Moses’ Signature? Ancient Inscriptions in Egypt May Hold the First Written Link to the Bible

29 July 2025

29 July 2025

Mysterious Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions may point to Moses and Joseph as historical figures, sparking global scholarly controversy. A groundbreaking proto-thesis by...

Surprising Discovery: In Guatemala, archaeologists uncover hidden neighborhood in the ancient Maya city

28 September 2021

28 September 2021

A recent lidar analysis revealed, the region surrounding Central Tikal’s Lost World Complex, which was long thought to be a...

Norwegian couple found a Viking Age Grave And Sword in their garden

3 July 2023

3 July 2023

While trying to expand their home, a Norwegian couple found a Viking Age grave and sword in their garden. It’s...

Researchers find the earliest record of aurora in old Chinese documents

15 April 2022

15 April 2022

Researchers have found the oldest known reference to a candidate aurora in a celestial event, described in an ancient Chinese...

A Mysterious Chapel Discovered in Istanbul Bagcılar

3 August 2023

3 August 2023

While Istanbul continues to surprise with the richness of its historical heritage, this time a chapel was discovered in Bağcılar....

A 1,500-Year-Old Roman Settlement Discovered in Bulgaria

21 March 2025

21 March 2025

In a remarkable turn of events, a team of archaeologists conducting preliminary excavations ahead of a transit gas pipeline project...

Earliest Multiplication Formulas Discovered in a 2,300-Year-Old Chinese Tomb

27 December 2023

27 December 2023

Archaeologists excavating a tomb in the Qinjiazui archaeological site of Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, China, have found the earliest multiplication...

4000-year-old sword found in Finland

12 October 2021

12 October 2021

A Bronze Age sword dating back as far as 1700 B.C.was discovered broken in items in Finland this previous summer...