伊ポンペイの別荘遺跡で「奴隷部屋」発見

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】イタリア南部の古代ローマ都市ポンペイの遺跡調査チームは６日、西暦７９年のベズビオ山の噴火で破壊された屋敷跡で、非常に珍しい「奴隷部屋」を発掘したと発表した。（写真は発掘調査を行う考古学チーム。ポンペイ考古学公園提供）
　小部屋にはベッドが三つの他、陶器や木箱も見つかった。発掘場所はポンペイ近郊にあった別荘地チビタ・ジュリアーナの邸宅遺構で、ここでは今年初めにローマ時代の戦車がほぼ完全な形で発見されている。考古学者らは、今回発掘された部屋では戦車の維持管理を担当する奴隷が暮らしていたとみている。
　発見について、ポンペイ考古学公園のガブリエル・ツフトリーゲル事務局長は、「ほぼエリート層の男性によってのみ記された歴史資料にはほとんど登場しない人々の不安定な現実を見られる窓」であり、「古代社会で最も弱い立場にあった人たちの生活」に関する「比類ない証言」だと述べている。
　寝室と物置の中間のような部屋は、広さ１６平方メートル。長さ約１．７メートルのベッド二つと、約１．４メートルの子ども用とみられるベッド一つが置かれていた。
　ベッドは数枚の粗板で組み立てられ、使う人の身長に合わせて大きさを調整できるようになっていた。考古学公園は、この部屋で寝起きしていた３人は家族だった可能性があるとしている。
　部屋の隅には、アンフォラと呼ばれるワインなどを入れる素焼きの器が８個しまわれていた。木箱には戦車の馬具と思われる金属製品や布類が入っており、ベッドの上に戦車の車軸が置かれていた。今年初めの発掘調査では、馬小屋から馬３頭の死骸が見つかっている。
　部屋の上方には小さな明かり窓があり、壁にはランタンを掛けたとみられる痕跡があるだけで、装飾などはなかった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/11/08-16:26）

Pompeii archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed the remains of a slave room in an exceptionally rare find at a Roman villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius' eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.
The little room with three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest was discovered during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just a few hundred metres from the rest of the ancient city.
An almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered here at the start of this year, and archaeologists said Saturday that the room likely housed slaves charged with maintaining and prepping the chariot.
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, said Pompeii's director general Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
The unique testimony into how the weakest in the ancient society lived... is certainly one of the most exciting discoveries in my life as an archaeologist, he said in a press release.
Pompeii was buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing those who hadn't managed to leave the city in time. They were either crushed by collapsing buildings or killed by thermal shock.
- 'Rare insight' -
The 16-square metre (170-square feet) room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom: as well as three beds -- one of which was child sized -- there were eight amphorae, stashed in a corner.
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.
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.
Experts had been able to make plaster casts of the beds and other objects in perishable materials which left their imprint in the cinerite -- the rock made of volcanic ash -- that covered them, it said.
- Slave 'family' -
The beds were made of several roughly worked wooden planks, which could be adjusted according to the height of the person who used them.
The webbed bases of the beds were made of ropes, covered by blankets.
While two were around 1.7 metres long, one measured just 1.4 metres, and may therefore have belonged to a child.
The archaeological park said the three slaves may have been a family.
Archaeologists found several personal objects under the beds, including amphorae for private things, ceramic jugs and what might be a chamber pot.
The room was lit by a small upper window, and there are no traces or wall decorations, just a mark believed to have been left by a lantern hung on a wall.
The excavation is part of a programme launched in 2017 aimed at fighting illegal activity in the area, including tunnel digging to reach artefacts that can be sold on illicit markets.
The Villa of Civita Giuliana had been the target of systematic looting for years. There was evidence some of the archaeological heritage in this so-called Slave Room had also been lost to looters, the park said.
Damage by grave robbers in the villa had been estimated so far at almost two million euros ($2.3 million), it added.