A ‘once in a century’ discovery has revealed a luxurious private bathhouse in the tragic Roman city of Pompeii.
The bathhouse included a huge plunge pool, hot, warm and cold rooms, frescoes and a marble mosaic floor.
And experts believe it was potentially the largest of its kind within a private home in Pompeii.
Only the super-wealthy would have been able to afford their own personal spa.
But the residence containing the bathhouse, discovered only in the past two years, was in the path of the catastrophic tidal wave of volcanic debris from Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in AD79, which left Pompeii perfectly preserved under a blanket of ash and pumice.
Inside were the remains of two people who had barricaded themselves in a small room following the eruption, only for the man to be crushed by a collapsed wall and the woman killed by a flood of superheated volcanic gas and ash.
The bathhouse discovery, revealed to the BBC, is part of a BBC2 programme airing on Monday called Pompeii: The New Dig.
Dr Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, said: ‘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.’
A ‘once in a century’ discovery has revealed a luxurious private bathhouse in the tragic Roman city of Pompeii
The bathhouse included a huge plunge pool, hot, warm and cold rooms, frescoes and a marble mosaic floor
Experts believe it was potentially the largest of its kind within a private home in Pompeii. Only the super-wealthy would have been able to afford their own personal spa
Pompeii, a third of which is still buried, had a population of around 30,000 people.
During its prime, the city was home to thriving industry, alongside financial and political networks.
The wealth of some inhabitants is clear from the bathhouse, which includes a changing room with a mosaic floor decorated with geometric patterns filled with marble from across the Roman Empire.
The spa-like complex begins with a hot room rather like a sauna, which had a suspended floor allowing hot air to flow underneath.
Next comes a colourful warm room, where it is likely bathers would have oil rubbed into their skin, then removed with a curved instrument called a strigil.
The last stage is the frigidarium, or cold room, where an opulent plunge pool large enough for 30 people was surrounded by red columns and frescoes depicting athletes.
Archaeologists, who were followed by a documentary team from the BBC and Lion TV, have uncovered an entire block of Pompeii, including a laundry and bakery, as well as the large private house containing the bathhouse and a huge and sumptuous banqueting room discovered last year.
The block may all have been owned by Aulus Rustius Verus, an influential Pompeii politician.
The spa-like complex begins with a hot room rather like a sauna, which had a suspended floor allowing hot air to flow underneath
Next comes a colourful warm room, where it is likely bathers would have oil rubbed into their skin, then removed with a curved instrument called a strigil
The last stage is the frigidarium, or cold room, where an opulent plunge pool large enough for 30 people was surrounded by red columns and frescoes depicting athletes
Pompeii, a third of which is still buried, had a population of around 30,000 people. During its prime, the city was home to thriving industry, alongside financial and political networks
Dr Zuchtriegel said: ‘There are just a few houses that have a private bath complex, so it was something really for the wealthiest of the wealthy.
‘And this is so huge – it’s probably the biggest bath complex in a Pompeiian private home.’
Next door to a small prayer room in the house, in a cramped space, has been found the remains of a woman, aged between 35 and 50, who was clutching jewellery and coins, and a younger man in his teens or early twenties.
Dr Sophie Hay, an archaeologist at Pompeii, said: ‘The pyroclastic flow from Vesuvius came along the street just outside this room, and caused a wall to collapse, and that had basically crushed him to death.
‘The woman was still alive while he was dying – imagine the trauma – and then this room filled with the rest of the pyroclastic flow, and that’s how she died.’
Dr Hay describes the private bathhouse complex as a once-in-a-century discovery, which also reveals a darker side of Roman life.
Just behind the hot room is a boiler room, with a furnace sitting beneath, which slaves would have had to operate amid unbearable heat.
The excavation is in its final weeks and eventually the site will be opened to the public.
The wealth of some inhabitants is clear from the bathhouse, which includes a changing room with a mosaic floor decorated with geometric patterns filled with marble from across the Roman Empire
Just behind the hot room is a boiler room, with a furnace sitting beneath, which slaves would have had to operate amid unbearable heat
Meanwhile a study of an Alexander the Great mosaic described by experts as the most important mosaic of the Roman age, which was discovered in Pompeii in 1831, suggests the rocks used to make it could have come from across Europe
Meanwhile a study of an Alexander the Great mosaic described by experts as the most important mosaic of the Roman age, which was discovered in Pompeii in 1831, suggests the rocks used to make it could have come from across Europe.
The mosaic, containing around two million pieces, may have used rocks from several Mediterranean mining areas.
This includes Greece, Tunisia and the Iberian Peninsula, the study led by the University of Naples Federico II suggests.
It is published in the journal PLOS One.
How Pompeii and Herculaneum were wiped off the map by devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago
What happened?
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow.
Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano in continental Europe and is thought to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.
Every single resident died instantly when the southern Italian town was hit by a 500°C pyroclastic hot surge.
Pyroclastic flows are a dense collection of hot gas and volcanic materials that flow down the side of an erupting volcano at high speed.
They are more dangerous than lava because they travel faster, at speeds of around 450mph (700 km/h), and at temperatures of 1,000°C.
An administrator and poet called Pliny the younger watched the disaster unfold from a distance.
Letters describing what he saw were found in the 16th century.
His writing suggests that the eruption caught the residents of Pompeii unaware.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow
He said that a column of smoke ‘like an umbrella pine’ rose from the volcano and made the towns around it as black as night.
People ran for their lives with torches, screaming and some wept as rain of ash and pumice fell for several hours.
While the eruption lasted for around 24 hours, the first pyroclastic surges began at midnight, causing the volcano’s column to collapse.
An avalanche of hot ash, rock and poisonous gas rushed down the side of the volcano at 124mph (199kph), burying victims and remnants of everyday life.
Hundreds of refugees sheltering in the vaulted arcades at the seaside in Herculaneum, clutching their jewelry and money, were killed instantly.
The Orto dei fuggiaschi (The garden of the Fugitives) shows the 13 bodies of victims who were buried by the ashes as they attempted to flee Pompeii during the 79 AD eruption of the Vesuvius volcano
As people fled Pompeii or hid in their homes, their bodies were covered by blankets of the surge.
While Pliny did not estimate how many people died, the event was said to be ‘exceptional’ and the number of deaths is thought to exceed 10,000.
What have they found?
This event ended the life of the cities but at the same time preserved them until rediscovery by archaeologists nearly 1700 years later.
The excavation of Pompeii, the industrial hub of the region and Herculaneum, a small beach resort, has given unparalleled insight into Roman life.
Archaeologists are continually uncovering more from the ash-covered city.
In May archaeologists uncovered an alleyway of grand houses, with balconies left mostly intact and still in their original hues.
A plaster cast of a dog, from the House of Orpheus, Pompeii, AD 79. Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day
Some of the balconies even had amphorae – the conical-shaped terra cotta vases that were used to hold wine and oil in ancient Roman times.
The discovery has been hailed as a ‘complete novelty’ – and the Italian Culture Ministry hopes they can be restored and opened to the public.
Upper stores have seldom been found among the ruins of the ancient town, which was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius volcano and buried under up to six meters of ash and volcanic rubble.
Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day.
