Archaeologists unearth 'slave room' in Pompeii

Pompeii archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed the remains of a "slave room" in an exceptionally rare find at a Roman villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius' eruption nearly 2,000 years ago

The slave room has three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest. It was found during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just a few hundred metres from the rest of the ancient city.

The room was discovered at the place where an almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered here at the start of this year.

The room is 16-square metre (170-square feet) and is a located between a bedroom and a storeroom: as well as three beds — one of which was child sized — there were eight amphorae, stashed in a corner. 

Experts had been able to make plaster casts of the beds and other objects in perishable materials which left their imprint in the cinerite -- the rock made of volcanic ash — that covered them.

(Text: AFP)

The beds were made of several roughly worked wooden planks, which could be adjusted according to the height of the person who used them. The webbed bases of the beds were made of ropes, covered by blankets.