AGI – Donkey blindfolded, tied up and forced to follow the furrows made on the ground for hours. Slaves confined in a confined environment without outside views, with small windows with iron bars that let in some light. A prisoner state for youPeople and animals forced to grind grain which are needed every day to make bread.
An almost prison-like bakery is being built in Pompeii in Regio IX, Insula 10, where excavations are being carried out as part of a broader project to secure and maintain the fronts surrounding the still unexplored area of the world’s most famous ancient city.
The archaeologists’ investigations revealed that a house was renovated, which, as was common in the Roman world, was converted into a building with sophisticated frescoes of the 4th century.
Three victims had already appeared in one of the rooms of the bakery in recent months, confirming that the house was occupied despite the ongoing renovation. Yet another testimony from Backbreaking labor that men, women and animals were subjected to in the ancient mill bakeries, also told by an exceptional source, the writer Apuleius, who lived in the 2nd century AD and who tells in the Metamorphoses IX 11-13 how Lucius, the protagonist of one of his stories, is transformed into a donkey and sold to a miller.
The new discoveries also make it possible to better describe the functioning of the production facility, which was closed at the time of the eruption in 79 AD. The highlighted production area has no doors and no communication with the outside world, the only exit is through the atrium and not even the stable has street access, as is often the case in other cases. “In other words, this is what it’s all about a space in which we must imagine the presence of people of submissive status whose owner felt the need to restrict freedom of movement – emphasizes the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Gabrielzuchtriegel, in a scientific article published by many to the e-journal of the excavations in Pompeii.
“It is the most shocking side of ancient slavery, the one without trust relationships and without promises of manipulation, where one was forced to resort to brutal force, an impression that is fully confirmed by closing the few windows with iron bars,” he added. The millstone area in the southern part of the central room adjoins the stable and is characterized by the presence of a long manger.
A series of semicircular depressions can be seen in the volcanic basalt plates around the millstones. Given the high durability of the material, it is likely that what at first glance appear to be footprints are actually notches made specifically to prevent draft animals from slipping on the sidewalk while providing a path mark, creating the canalis curve described by Apuleius.
“In particular the iconographic and literary sourcesand the reliefs from the tomb of Eurysaces in Rome, indicate that a millstone was usually moved by a pair consisting of a donkey and a slave. In addition to pushing the grindstone, the latter also had the task of spurring the animal and monitoring the grinding process, the addition of grain and the removal of flour,” explains the park director.
The wear of the different notches can depend on the infinite number of always the same revolutions carried out according to the pattern established in the flooring. The resurfaced environment with its evidence of the harsh everyday life integrates the image told in the exhibition “The other Pompeii: living together in the shadow of Vesuvius“, which opens on December 15th at the Palestra grande degli scavi and is dedicated to the countless individuals often forgotten in historical chronicles, such as the slaves who made up the majority of the population and whose work contributed significantly to the economy, but also to … contributed to the culture and social structure of Roman civilization.
Reprint reserved © Agi 2023
