18 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The latest discovery at the villa Civita Giuliana, north of Pompeii, the remains of a slave room

Ella IDE Pompeii archaeologists announced Saturday the discovery of the remnants of a “slave room” in an exceedingly unusual find at a Roman house devastated over 2,000 years ago by Mount Vesuvius’ explosion.

Three wooden beds, a chamber pot, and a wooden chest holding metal and cloth goods were discovered in the restricted living quarters of a vast villa in Civita Giuliana, roughly 700 meters northwest of Pompeii’s city walls.

A virtually complete ornate Roman chariot was unearthed here earlier this year, and researchers said Saturday that the chamber most likely housed slaves responsible for cleaning and preparing the chariot.

The only natural light in the 16-square-meter area came from a single high window, and no wall decorations were visible.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Pompeii’s director-general, said the discovery was “exceptional”, “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.”

Pompeii slave room
Beds, pots and other possessions in the well-preserved room in Villa Giuliana. Photo: Pompeiisites

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.

The 16-square-foot (170-square-foot) room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom. There were 3 beds in the room.

The beds are composed of several roughly worked hardwood planks that may be modified to fit the height of whoever uses them. While two of them are around 1.7 meters long, one bed is only 1.4 meters long and may have belonged to a young man or child.

Civita Giuliana
Extremely well-preserved “Slave Room” at Villa Civita Giuliana in Pompeii. Photo: Pompeiisites

Several personal objects were found under the beds, including amphorae positioned to store private possessions, ceramic jugs, and a ‘chamber pot’.

The chamber was used for storage as well as a dormitory for a group of slaves – maybe a small family, as the existence of the child-sized bed would imply – as evidenced by the eight amphorae squeezed into the corners that were otherwise left open for this reason.

“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 that left their imprint in the cinerite – the rock made of volcanic ash – that covered them, it said.

The excavation of the chamber is part of the work being done by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in collaboration with the Torre Annunziata Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is supervised by the Chief Prosecutor Nunzio Fragliasso.

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.

Massimo Osanna, Director-General of Museums, “The study of this room, which will be enriched by the results of ongoing analyses, will allow us to uncover new and interesting information on the living conditions and lives of slaves at Pompeii and in the Roman world,” he said.

POMPEII

Related Articles

Archaeologists discover one of the largest Phallus Relief Carving of ancient Rome

28 August 2022

28 August 2022

According to an announcement by the region’s local history museum, a large Roman-era relief carving of a phallus has been...

Tutankhamun of Kazakhstan, “Golden Man”

1 August 2024

1 August 2024

The Golden Man, the main symbol of Kazakhstan’s independence, is a warrior’s costume from about the 5th century BC that...

“Euromos”, The Luckiest Ancient City of Anatolia

18 March 2021

18 March 2021

The city in the region called Caria was known from the 5th century BC as Cyramos (Hyramos). During the reign...

Maya Archaeological site for sale on Facebook has stirred controversy in Yucatán and across Mexico

31 March 2023

31 March 2023

Over 249 hectares of land for sale on Facebook Marketplace has sparked controversy in Yucatan and across Mexico. The property,...

Visit Baalbek’s Famous Temples with a Free 3d Virtual Tour

10 April 2021

10 April 2021

Baalbek, which has traces of settlement since 9000 BC, was one of the cornerstones of ancient civilizations. The famous Baalbek temple...

The first mother-daughter burial from the Roman period found in Austria

3 May 2024

3 May 2024

Modern scientific methods are increasingly uncovering spectacular results from archaeological finds dating back a long time. A grave discovered 20...

The Anahita Temple in western Iran is Being Restored

11 June 2021

11 June 2021

A restoration project has been commenced on the ancient temple of Anahita, which is located in the city of Kangavar,...

Doune Pistols: The Spark That Ignited a Revolution Returns Home

5 May 2025

5 May 2025

A remarkable piece of Scottish history has returned to its roots as a collection of ten exquisite 18th-century pistols, crafted...

Excavations in Haldensleben, Germany Reveal A Lost Settlement

9 November 2024

9 November 2024

Excavations at Haldensleben in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt provide important information about a lost settlement. Since May 2024, the...

Archaeologists identified the first known tomb of a Warrior Woman with weapons in Hungary

5 January 2025

5 January 2025

A team of archaeologists led by Balázs Tihanyi of the Department of Biological Anthropology and the Department of Archaeology at...

Huge ancient stone murals discovered in central China: “It is an important discovery that enriches and rewrites the art history of the Song Dynasty”

10 October 2022

10 October 2022

Two stone murals from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) have been discovered in Henan Province, central China, and are the...

Stone Age Swiss Army Knife? Experimental Archaeology Reveals Surprising Use of Bone Tools at Estonia Site

22 May 2025

22 May 2025

A groundbreaking new study published in February 2025 has revealed that mysterious bone tools discovered at Estonia’s oldest known human...

Israeli researchers create AI to translate ancient cuneiform Akkadian texts

4 May 2023

4 May 2023

Israeli experts have created a program to translate an ancient language that is difficult to decipher, allowing automatic and accurate...

Archaeologists unearth human spines threaded onto reed posts in Peru

5 February 2022

5 February 2022

Archaeologists have found almost 192 examples of human vertebrae threaded onto reed posts 500 years ago in the Chincha Valley...

City swallowed by sea now center of boat tours

10 September 2023

10 September 2023

The Kekova region, or Sunken City, which has remained under the sea after two major earthquakes in the sixth century...