The space was tiny. A narrow windowless basement room where the only light that entered was through small windows with iron bars located at the highest point of the walls. In that cubicle several people spent their days with pack donkeys. They were all slaves in a bakery in Pompeii.
Workers were exploited for the sole purpose of obtaining the grain necessary to make bread. The animals were forced to walk for hours blindfolded, pulling a large cylindrical stone over another to crush the grains and turn them into flour.
Researchers at the Pompeii Archaeological Park have discovered the space in Region IX, Insula 10, of the city, an area where excavations are being carried out as part of a project to secure and consolidate the slopes that form the edge of the areas. not excavated from the ancient city.
The work has allowed us to discover a house in the process of renovation, divided - as was usual - into a residential area, decorated with exquisite frescoes, and a productive space. In this case it was a bakery. And in one of its rooms, three victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79 AD were discovered, confirming that the building was inhabited despite the works.
The prison-bakery lacks doors and communication with the outside. Its only exit leads to the atrium of the house. Not even the stable has direct access to the street, as is common in other buildings. "The owner of the establishment felt the need to restrict the freedom of movement of these people of servile status," says Gabriel Zuchtriegel, general director of the Archaeological Park, in an article published in the E-Journal about the Pompeii excavations.
"It is the most striking side of ancient slavery, the one that lacked both relationships of trust and promises of manumission (giving freedom to slaves). It all came down to brutal violence, an impression that is entirely confirmed by seeing the few windows with iron bars," he adds.
Apuleius, one of the most important Roman writers of the 2nd century after Christ, recounts the harshness of the exhausting work to which men, women and animals were subjected in the ancient mills and bakeries. In his work The Metamorphoses (or The Golden Ass) he relates the experience of an aristocrat named Lucio who was transformed into a donkey and sold to a miller, where he is forced to be a victim of the miseries of slaves.
In the floor of the discovered prison-bakery, some slits have been found to precisely coordinate the movement of donkeys and enslaved workers. The area of the millstones (large stones that were used to grind wheat and obtain flour), located in the southern part of the central room, borders the stable, characterized by the presence of a long trough.
A series of semicircular grooves can be observed in the volcanic basalt slabs that surround the wheels. Given the robust durability of the material, it is likely that what at first glance might appear to be "footprints" are actually deliberate carvings made to prevent draft animals from slipping on the pavement.
At the same time, they trace a path, forming a "circular groove" (curva canalis) which is also described by Apuleius. "Iconographic and literary sources, such as the reliefs from the tomb of Eurysacus (or Baker's Tomb) in Rome, suggest that the millstone was normally moved by a pair formed by a donkey and a slave. The latter, in addition to pushing the grinding stone had the task of inciting the animal, in addition to adding the grain and collecting the flour," write the authors of the study.
The wear and tear of the different grooves can be attributed to the endless cycles, always the same, carried out according to the pattern drawn on the pavement. More than just a groove, experts say, it is reminiscent of the gears of a clockwork mechanism, designed to synchronize movement around the four tight millstones found in this area.
This uncovered space complements the exhibition "The Other Pompeii: Ordinary Lives in the Shadow of Vesuvius" which will open on December 15, 2023 in the Palestra Grande of Pompeii and is dedicated to individuals often forgotten by historical sources, such as slaves , who constituted the majority of the population and whose work contributed significantly not only to the economy, but also to the culture and social fabric of Roman civilization.
"Spaces like this," adds Gabriel Zuchtriegel, "help us understand why there were those who believed it was necessary to change that world and why in the same years Paul, a member of a small religious group who was later canonized by the Catholic Church, wrote that It is better to all be servants, douloi, that is, slaves, not of an earthly master, but of a heavenly one."
