Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000 years old "slave room" in a rare find at a Roman villa on the outskirts of the ancient city of Pompeii that was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The little room with three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest was unearthed at a suburban villa just a few hundred metres from the rest of the ancient city.
The wooden chest held metal and fabric objects that seem to be part of the harnesses of the chariot horses, and a chariot shaft was found resting on one of the beds.
An almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered at this place earlier this year and archaeologists said on Saturday that the room likely housed slaves charged with maintaining the chariot, according to an AFP report from Rome.
"This is a window into the precarious reality of people who rarely appear in historical sources, written almost exclusively by men belonging to the elite… The site bears unique testimony into how the weakest in the ancient society lived, Pompeii's director general Gabriel Zuchtriegel said in a press statement.
The remains of three horses were found in a stable in a dig earlier this year.
"The room grants us a rare insight into the daily reality of slaves, thanks to the exceptional state of preservation of the room," the Pompeii archaeological park said.
