A report published Tuesday detailed the discovery of a bakery prison within the ruins of Pompeii, Italy.
Archaeologists in Pompeii, Italy, recently discovered a bakery where prison slaves were forced to work under horrific conditions, according to the Smithsonian magazine. Pompeii is best known as the town destroyed by the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, a huge volcano on the island of Sicily, which encased countless residents in the debris of a pyroclastic flow.
“It is, in other words, a space in which we have to imagine the presence of people of servile status whose freedom of movement the owner felt the need to restrict,” director of Pompeii’s archaeological park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, said in a statement. “It is the most shocking side of ancient slavery, the one devoid of both trusting relationships and promises of manumission, where we were reduced to brute violence, an impression that is entirely confirmed by the securing of the few windows with iron bars.”
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Along with enslaved workers, donkeys were used to push a grindstone as grain was added to process and collect flour, the outlet continued. Archaeologists even uncovered indentations on the floors, which are believed to have coordinated the movements between animals and workers.
It was so cramped the donkeys couldn’t pass by each other at the same time, Zuchtriegel told the New York Times. (RELATED: The Fall Of Rome Just Got A Major Historical Update That Changes Everything)
Ancient texts on these practices describe horrific conditions, where workers’ skin would be “striped with livid welts,” their “foreheads branded” and “feet chained together.” The donkeys were blindfolded and forced to pace for hours in the same circle. All-in-all, it sounds like Hell … and you can go visit it today!