New Pompeii excavation reveals a large private thermal complex built 2,000 years ago

By: The Associated Press Posted: 6:17 AM CST Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 Last Modified: 6:35 AM CST Friday, Jan. 17, 2025

ROME (AP) — Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by ash and lava in 70 AD, has unearthed a new treasure -- a private bathhouse built 2,000 years ago, decorated with sumptuous mosaics and equipped with a series of hot, warm and cold rooms in the manner of a spa.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

Read unlimited articles for free today:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2025 (620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROME (AP) — Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by ash and lava in 70 AD, has unearthed a new treasure — a private bathhouse built 2,000 years ago, decorated with sumptuous mosaics and equipped with a series of hot, warm and cold rooms in the manner of a spa.

“We have here perhaps the largest thermal complex in a private house in Pompeii,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii archaeological park. “The members of the ruling class of Pompeii set up enormous spaces in their homes to host banquets.

“They had the function of creating consensus, promoting an election campaign, closing deals. It was an opportunity to show the wealth in which they lived and also to have a nice thermal treatment,” he explained.

A picture released by the Pompeii Archeological Park Press Office, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, showing a private bathhouse recently discovered in the Pompeii archeological site. (Archeological Park of Pompeii Press Office Via AP, HO)

The baths were unearthed in the so -called Regio IX, a large central area of Pompeii park still unexplored, where major archaeological excavations are revealing new aspects of Pompeians’ daily life.

Recently, archeologists working in the same area found a bakery, a laundry shop, two villas and the bones of three people who died during the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed both the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Zuchtriegel said wealthy habitants of Pompeii often used first to take a bath and then to have a banquet, so the private spa complex allowed to do that altogether inside the same house.

“There is room for about 30 people who could do the whole routine, and that could also be done in public baths. So there is the calidarium, a very warm environment and also a large tub with cold water,” he said.