Pompeii: This is how the slaves of the Romans lived

room of a slave family

Three people in 16 square meters – slaves lived in these conditions in Pompeii about 2000 years ago. Scientists from the Archaeological Park in the city of Vesuvius have unearthed a room inside a villa and found the remains of three simple beds. As the excavators suspected, it was the bedroom of the freedmen, possibly a family who spent the night there with pottery and some belongings.

In addition to the chamber, excavators had already found a boat this year and the remains of three horses in 2018. When Vesuvius exploded, people and animals were buried. The dead themselves are mostly rotten under a thick layer of pumice stone, just as many objects made of perishable materials are made of weathering. However, the victims and objects left a void in the volcanic crust. Even early Pompeii excavators put plaster of Paris on such sites. In this way archaeologists have now been able to reconstruct all three beds.

These consisted of plain wooden planks, lying areas of taut ropes. There were blankets on him. The length of two loungers is about 1.7 m, the third 1.4 m – according to the excavators, it could have been used as a cot. There was also a wooden box with the bridle that was probably attached to the float in the adjoining room, which had already been exposed. As part of the car, the researchers identified a drawbar that was also found in the chamber.