ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER A SLAVE BAKERY IN POMPEII

Sat 16 December 2023:

Italy’s archaeologists uncovered a bakery prison in Pompeii that held slaves and used them as laborers to produce bread. In an article published on Friday, December 8, the news agency Reuters stated that the bakery was found while conducting excavations at the Pompeii ruins.

In a statement, Italy’s culture ministry said the finding emerged in Region IX, Insula 10, where excavations were underway as part of a larger project to secure and consolidate the slopes that form the edge of the unexcavated areas of the city.

A bakery with no view of the outside world

In a small room, with no view of the outside world and with small windows high in the wall with iron bars to let the light in, slaves and donkeys were forced to walk around for hours to grind grain to make bread.

Speaking to Reuters, Pompeii Archaeological Park’s Director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said, “We are in the house’s bakery and behind me, there is the big oven. The stable was right here, the donkeys used to live between these two spaces and, as you can see, there are a lot of mills.”

“The paving stones were also a bit slippery, so here we have something that exists in other parts of the city but is particularly clear here, which helped us understand this phenomenon. There are carvings,” Zuchtriegel added.

The archaeologist also said that the bakery highlighted the very precarious living conditions of enslaved people and animals exploited for this gruelling work.

Pompeii, which was rediscovered in the 18th century, is one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions. The city has seen a flurry of archaeological activity in recent times.

In August, archaeologists discovered a small bedroom in a Roman villa near the city that was almost certainly used by slaves, throwing light on their condition in the ancient world.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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