Archaeologists have discovered a small bedroom in a Roman villa near Pompeii that was almost certainly used by slaves, shedding new light on their low status in antiquity, Italy's culture ministry said.
The room was found in the Civita Giuiliani villa, located about 600 meters north of Pompeii, which was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost 2000 years ago.
In the room there were two beds, only one of which had some kind of mattress, two small cabinets and several urns and ceramic containers in which the remains of mice and rats were found, writes Reuters.
"These details once again emphasize the conditions of poverty and poor hygiene in which the lower classes of society lived at that time," the ministry announced.
No remains of locks or chains for binding the occupants of the room were found. Excavations in that villa were carried out in 1907 - 1908 and again in 2017, when the police realized that the location had been looted by illegal diggers, Hina agency reports.
Pompeii and its surroundings were covered by a thick layer of volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, killing thousands of Romans.
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