2023-08-20 10:51:43
Time.news – One new room, with its furnishings, intended for slaves. It is the latest ‘surprise’ of the ongoing excavations in the Roman villa of Civita Giuliana, about 600 meters from the walls of ancient Pompeii. A situation of precariousness and subordination documented by unique finds because they were positioned where they were on that day at the end of October 79 AD, when Vesuvius buried the cities at his feet.
An image of almost 2000 years ago, made with the cast technique, existing only in Pompeii and its surroundings. Materials such as furniture and fabrics, as well as the bodies of victims of the eruption of 79 AD, were covered by the pyroclastic cloud, which then became solid ground while the decomposed organic matter left a void in the ground: an imprint which, filled with plaster, has revealed its original form.
The new room, called ‘room A’, is different from the one already known as ‘room C’, rebuilt in November 2021 in which three cots were positioned and which served at the same time as a closet. What has now emerged suggests a precise hierarchy within the servitude. While one of the two beds found in these weeks is of the same workmanship as those in room C, extremely simple and without a mattress, the other is of a more comfortable and expensive type, known in the bibliography as a headboard bed. Traces of red decorations on two of the backs are still visible in the cinerite.
In addition to the two beds, in the recently excavated room there are two small wardrobes, also partially preserved as casts, a series of amphorae and ceramic vases and various tools, including an iron hoe. In the meantime, the microexcavation of vases and amphorae from room C has returned three rodents, two mice in an amphora and a rat in a jug, positioned under one of the beds and from which it seems that the animal was trying to escape when it died in pyroclastic flow of the eruption.
The Roman villa of Civita Giuliana, Pompeii
Details that once again underline the unhealthy conditions in which the last of society lived at the time. The archaeological exploration of the villa of Civita Giuliana, already the subject of excavations in 1907-08, began in 2017 with a collaboration between the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, as the competent body for the protection of the area surrounding the ancient city, and the prosecutor of Torre Annunziata, who together with the Carabinieri had discovered clandestine excavations in the area of the Villa which had been going on for years, leading to precautionary measures and criminal and civil trials.
“We know that the owners used various privileges, including the possibility of forming a family, albeit without any legal protection, to tie some slaves more closely to the villa, also with the aim of having them as allies in supervising the others. What emerges here it is the social structure of the servitude that was supposed to prevent escapes and forms of resistance, also because there are no traces of grates, padlocks and shackles.The control took place mainly through the internal organization of the servitude, and not through barriers and physical constraints – explains the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel – we are committed to continuing the research and planning the use of a place which, like no other in the ancient world, tells the daily life of the last. On the occasion of the reopening of the Boscoreale Antiquarium next autumn, we expect a room to inform the public about the excavations in progress, the same ones which, under the direction of my predecessor, Massimo Osanna, led to the discovery of the ceremonial chariot recently on display in Rome, at the Baths of Diocletian. In addition to the team involved in the archaeological excavation, I would like to thank the prosecutor led by Nunzio Fragliasso for the excellent work done”.
Sangiuliano: “Confirmation of the need to continue the research”
“What has been reconstructed confirms the need to continue scientific research in a place which, thanks to the work of the judiciary and the Carabinieri, was rescued from looting and the illicit trafficking of archaeological assets to tell remarkable moments of daily life in antiquity. That that we are learning about the material conditions and the social organization of the time opens new horizons for historical and archaeological studies. Pompeii represents a unicum that the whole world envies us. Once the Great Pompeii operation has been completed, we are planning new initiatives and new funding to continue in research and conservation”. The Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano writes this in a note, after the announcement of the discovery of a new room intended for excavations in the Roman villa of Civita Giuliana, of which the furnishings were also recovered through casts.
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