Pompeii’s new secrets revealed: Beauty, sex and slavery

One of the many inscriptions preserved in Pompeii, the Roman city buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, announces that the nearby amphitheater at Cumae will offer “cruciarri ven(atio) et vela,” crucifixions and venatio — hunting shows, in which sometimes humans hunted animals and sometimes animals hunted humans — and canopies, indicating that the killing would be watched in comfortable shade. With its frescoes, mansions, thermal baths, restaurants, laundries, and temples, Pompeii reflects the sophistication and beauty of the Roman world, which in the southern Italian city seems strangely close to the present. But at the same time, as in graffiti number CIL IV 9983a, it also conceals a brutal world, marked by the cruelty of slavery and the violence that permeated many aspects of daily life.

The new excavations at Pompeii also reflect this profound contradiction: on the one hand, among many other frescoes, archeologists have uncovered what appears to be an early version of pizza, painted 2,000 years ago — a flatbread with slightly raised edges, topped with various ingredients. This discovery captured global attention, linking the distant past with the modern-day culinary creation born in Naples.

However, just a few meters away, a bakery was uncovered, where slaves were forced to work in appalling conditions. And it was also a prison that turned deadly: in one room the skeletons of three people were found — two women and a child whose sex could not be determined — who had died during the eruption when the roof collapsed on them. Researchers hypothesize that their owners locked them in there when they fled, abandoning them to die in the catastrophic event.

“Controlling slaves was an obsession,” explains the German-born archaeologist Gabriel Zuchtriegel, 43, during a visit to the new excavations. He has been the director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park since 2021 and the author of the upcoming book The Buried City: Unearthing the Real Pompeii. Amidst scaffolding, rubble and ancient remains, he points to a small window. “It leads to a room in the same house, and yet it had iron bars. They were not worried that thieves could get in because they would already be inside the house, rather their function was to prevent slaves from wandering around other parts of the house, escaping or attacking their owners. It was something that was always present in the minds of the Romans because they represented a third of the population. A huge number of human beings were owned by others. This implies a structural violence that affects the whole society.”

This contradiction between the Rome of opulence and art and the violence embedded in its society lies at the heart of The Buried City. The book offers an erudite yet intimate journey through the world’s most famous Roman ruins, delving into the intensive archaeological work initiated under Zuchtriegel’s predecessor, Massimo Osanna. It reflects on his personal connection to the site — a passion that once led him to study the 11 volumes of Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici during his time as a student at Humboldt University in Berlin. Yet, beyond exploring Pompeii’s splendor, the book aims to illuminate the darker aspects of Roman life, particularly the brutality of slavery, exploitation, and the suffering caused by the catastrophic eruption of 79 AD.

Sexuality, an element seen in numerous frescoes and corners of the city, reflects a world and morality that existed before the rise of Christianity — a theme explored by great writers such as Pascal Quignard in Sex and Terror, as well as scholars like Paul Veyne in Sex and Power in Rome and Mary Beard in Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town. However, it also reveals a darker side. The brothel, with its explicit frescoes, remains one of the most visited monuments on the site, but it is also a place of immense suffering. Zuchtriegel reflects on this: “When we reopened the brothel after a long closure due to the pandemic, I was concerned that a place of extreme sexual exploitation [where many of the prostitutes were slaves] would become a potentially problematic public attraction, devoid of any trace of suffering or social contrasts.”

These complex themes arise during a visit to the excavations on a warm October morning, beneath the ever-present and unsettling silhouette of Vesuvius. Massimo Osanna, now director general of museums and antiquities at the Italian Ministry of Culture, revitalized Pompeii after a long period of stagnation, promoting new excavations. Since Zuchtriegel took over, the investigations have continued, and since 2023, have focused on block IX. The ancient city is divided into nine districts, or regions, and a third of the site remains unexcavated.

Archaeologists working on the project recount new discoveries in a digital journal, the E-Journal degli Scavi di Pompei, that is constantly updated. The new discoveries can also be followed in the three episodes of the BBC documentary 2024 Pompeii: New Excavations. In fact, many of the protagonists from the documentary, which the British corporation developed over several months, can be seen among the scaffolding supporting the remains recently uncovered after lying buried for two millennia under tons of earth, ash, and pumice.

“We often have this idea of Pompeii as something beautiful and entertaining because it represents culture and art,” explains Zuchtriegel. “And it is. But it also represents a tragedy. This place reminds us of memory and death, of suffering and panic.”

Indeed, his soon-to-be-released book begins in the so-called Garden of the Fugitives, a peaceful and beautiful space, bathed in October’s filtered autumn light. There, the bodies of 13 people who were trying to escape the eruption were found, including several minors, now preserved as plaster casts. “A small child clung to his mother’s breast, helpless before the force of the shock wave of dust and ash that enveloped him,” writes Zuchtriegel, referring to two of the 1,200 victims of the volcano whose bodies have been found throughout the city.

“We must not underestimate our visitors,” the archaeologist continues, “because that is what makes archaeology fascinating: it deals with human history and suffering, and it offers solutions and new approaches to understanding what happens when a crisis breaks out. We should offer them the possibility to decide what point of view they want to adopt when visiting the site.”

The new discoveries still leave many questions unanswered, as much work remains to be done, though archaeologists have managed to make sense of seemingly unrelated finds. There is still no set date for the opening of these new areas to the thousands of tourists who visit the city each year. However, visitors can observe ongoing archaeological work from a sophisticated system of elevated walkways, including projects on the neighboring Insula of the Chaste Lovers. This complex, which includes three houses, recently made headlines on October 24 when several erotic frescoes were discovered.

Although the state of preservation of the paintings and objects found is remarkably good for remains that are at least 2,000 years old, the buildings themselves were heavily damaged. When they were buried by the eruption, work was still underway to repair the damage caused by a powerful earthquake that had struck the city 15 years prior to Vesuvius’ eruption. Historian Mary Beard emphasizes in her book that Pompeii was not a normal functioning city when the eruption occurred. It was still in the process of recovering from the recent earthquake when it was ultimately devastated by the catastrophic pyroclastic flows of Vesuvius.

The discoveries include a bakery, where conditions must have been horrendous, as there were four mills and a large oven crammed into a small space, with humans and pack animals working in close quarters. Also uncovered was a laundry (fullonica), a business used exclusively by the wealthy to have their tunics cleaned. One of the main ingredients in the detergent was ammonia extracted from human urine, meaning it was far from a pleasant environment to work in.

Next door, a luxurious home is being excavated, complete with household shrines, a dining room, and private baths. A spectacular staircase was found in an inner courtyard, the highest one discovered in the city so far. Graffiti was found on the stairs, including the inevitable depiction of a penis, as well as charcoal drawings of gladiators, likely drawn by someone who had witnessed their battles — the gladiators’ barracks were located just in front. Over the months, this entire archaeological puzzle has begun to take shape.

On one of the millstones, the initials “ARV” are visible. Archaeologists quickly deduced that this referred to Aulus Rustius Verus, a wealthy politician whose name also appears elsewhere in Pompeii, as he held the prestigious public office of duumvir, the highest position in any Roman city. In June 2023, graffiti calling for votes for the position of aedile, the official in charge of public works, was also found during the same excavation. If he later ascended to the role of duumvir, it’s highly probable that his initial success in the elections was due to his prior position as aedile, a necessary step for obtaining the duumvir role.

Bread was the staple food for many in Pompeii, and its free distribution was an essential tool for gaining votes during campaigns. The laundry, which catered only to the wealthy, was a means of getting close to powerful figures, as they were the primary customers. The lavishly decorated dining room suggests that Rustius Verus was someone who hosted banquets, and the opulent room with a decorated ceiling and table indicates that he entertained guests in an extravagant setting designed to impress.

All of these points make sense only when viewed together. “In Pompeii, you can study not just a house or monument, but an entire city,” explains Zuchtriegel. “It’s like an organism with countless connections.”

He continues: “Until very recently, due to the sheer volume of data and materials that were being found, research has been selective. People studied houses or shrines; but that is changing thanks to new digital technologies and perhaps artificial intelligence, which will allow us to process enormous amounts of data. For the first time, we will be able to study and analyze Pompeii as a large organism; but to do so, we will have to move beyond traditional research methods. Everything is still too rooted in a 19th-century working model. I think we should start thinking about ways of doing research, where it’s not always clear at the outset where it will lead or what the results will be. Perhaps it’s not even clear all the questions we should be asking.”

In fact, the BBC documentary features a wide range of specialists: scholars of Roman ovens, experts in dye factories, and paleobotanists studying food remains. In one room, believed to be a small domestic shrine, various amphorae containing wine from Campania and oil from Hispania were found stacked against a wall. Two Pompeii veterans, Gennaro Iovino, head of the new excavations, and Ausilia Trapani, head of the archaeological laboratory (where there’s enough material to create a small museum), also join the visit.

However, this vast collective effort is not just focused on the past — it also has implications for the present and future. In one room, a lararium was discovered, a space dedicated to the lares, the household gods, which featured three snakes — two in relief and one painted. Snakes were a common symbol in Pompeii, nearly as prevalent as depictions of penises, representing abundance and good fortune. When the snakes were uncovered in Region IX, one of the workers recalled his childhood, when his family had a summer house with a garden. A snake, “with a very large head,” always appeared there. His father had told them not to harm it, as it was a protector of the home. “In some way,” says archaeologist Gennaro Iovino, “it is a tradition that has been kept alive orally for 2,000 years.”

The area currently undergoing the most intensive excavation is the private baths of a house, where new frescoes, columns, and a water system featuring pipes and taps that appear remarkably modern are being uncovered. With the excavation now halfway complete, archaeologists are gaining a clearer understanding of the timeline of the eruption, which began with a prolonged shower of pumice, followed by ash, and concluded with devastating pyroclastic flows at extremely high temperatures.

Two volcanologists from the University of Naples Federico II, Claudio Scarpati and Annamaria Perrota, are working alongside the excavation team. “We sought out all possible information to understand the eruption of 79 AD and studied its various phases to determine which moments were the most dangerous,” explains Scarpati. While the last eruption of Vesuvius occurred in 1944, during World War II — Norman Lewis describes it in his classic documentary film Naples ‘44 — it was not an explosive event.

The mansion of Aulus Rustius Verus is yet further proof that Pompeii is a never-ending journey of discovery: it not only hides secrets about the past, it may also hold lessons for the future.

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