The never-ending wonder of Pompeii

Archaeologists have uncovered an extravagant private bath complex in Pompeii, shedding further light on the ancient Roman city's grandeur prior to its destruction by Mount Vesuvius in AD79.

You might think a site that has been excavated since the 18th century has "little left to surprise us with", said The Independent. But Pompeii is "the gift that just keeps on giving".

Splendour and esteem

The bathhouse has been described in the sort of language reserved for modern luxury holiday resorts. It housed "hot, warm, and cold rooms" and accommodated up to 30 guests, "offering them relaxation" before entering a nearby banquet hall "adorned with Greek mythology scenes", said Dev Discourse. A large basin within a central courtyard only "enhances the house's splendour", and it's believed to belong to an "esteemed member of society during its final years".

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So the venue was "lending itself" to important occasions for the owner to "secure an electoral consensus, promote the candidacy of family or friends", or "merely display their social status", said CNN.

Extraordinary house

The bathhouse is "the latest find to emerge" from this "extraordinary house" in the area of the city known as Regio (Region) IX, said the BBC. Last year, archaeologists uncovered a vast banqueting room with "breathtaking artwork of classical scenes".

Although it was painted black, this was "no grunge-teenager room", said The Independent. Rather it included "exquisitely painted scenes from myth", including one fresco portraying "the king of the gods, Zeus, in disguise as a swan". There was also a smaller, "more intimate" room, where residents of the house would "go and pray to the gods".

Excavations in Regio IX have "yielded" other treasures since they began in February 2023, said The Guardian. These have included a "cramped" bakery where enslaved people were thought to have been imprisoned and "made to produce bread". There is also a laundry, which, like other laundries in ancient Italy, used urine as their "key active cleaning ingredient", said The Independent.

The excavations have also unearthed the remains of 1,000 of the city's ancient inhabitants, including two bodies inside a private residence within the bathhouse – a woman estimated to have been between 35 and 50 years old, clutching jewellery and coins, and a much younger man.

Cheek by jowl

The contrast between the drudgery of a hot, crowded bakery or urine-soaked laundry room and the lavish bathhouse show that "two very different styles of life" are "set cheek by jowl with one another" in Pompeii, said The Independent. This was "often the norm" in ancient Roman cities, which had "no luxury leafy suburbs separate from the industrial areas of town", but a "much more mixed up" and "starkly contrasting, urban fabric".

"Every day here is a surprise," Dr Anna Onesti, director of the excavation, told the BBC, ahead of this evening's BBC Two documentary "Pompeii: The New Dig". "Sometimes in the morning I come to work thinking that it's a normal working day – and then I discover we found something exceptional."