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After lying hidden beneath metres of volcanic rock and ash for 2,000 years, a “once-in-a-century” find has been unearthed in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii in Italy.
Archaeologists have discovered a sumptuous private bathhouse – potentially the largest ever found there – complete with hot, warm and cold rooms, exquisite artwork, and a huge plunge pool.
The spa-like complex sits at the heart of a grand residence uncovered over the last two years during a major excavation.
“It’s these spaces that really are part of the ‘Pompeii effect’ – it’s almost as if the people had only left a minute ago,” says Dr Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, who has revealed the new find exclusively to BBC News.
Analysis of two skeletons discovered in the house also shows the horror faced by Pompeii’s inhabitants when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.
The bodies belonged to a woman, aged between 35 and 50, who was clutching jewellery and coins, and a younger man in his teens or early 20s.
They had barricaded themselves into a small room, but were killed as a tsunami of superheated volcanic gas and ash – known as a pyroclastic flow – ripped through the town.
“This is a dramatic place, and everything you find here tells you about the drama,” says Pompeii conservator, Dr Ludovica Alesse.
A third of the ancient city still lies hidden beneath volcanic debris from the disaster, but the new excavation – the most extensive in a generation – provides new insights into ancient Roman life.
The archaeologists have been followed by a documentary team from the BBC and Lion TV, for a series called Pompeii: The New Dig.
Dr Sophie Hay describes the private bathhouse complex as a once-in-a-century discovery, which also sheds more light on a darker side of Roman life.
Just behind the hot room is a boiler room. A pipe brought water in from the street – with some syphoned off into the cold plunge pool – and the rest was heated in a lead boiler destined for the hot room. The valves that regulated the flow look so modern it’s as if you could turn them on and off even today.
With a furnace sitting beneath, the conditions in this room would have been unbearably hot for the slaves who had to keep the whole system going.
“The most powerful thing from these excavations is that stark contrast between the lives of the slaves and the very, very rich. And here we see it,” says Dr Sophie Hay.
“A wall is all that could divide you between two different worlds.”
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