Unearthing Pompeii's Disturbing Prison Bakery: A Shocking Glimpse into Ancient Slavery

Archaeologists excavating in Pompeii have uncovered a disturbing bakery-prison where enslaved workers and blind-folded donkeys were confined and exploited to produce bread. The cramped workspace, equipped with small windows secured by iron bars, suggests the presence of individuals of servile status whose freedom of movement was restricted. The discovery of three victims in one of the bakery's rooms indicates that the property still housed individuals at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. This finding aligns with the accounts of backbreaking labor endured by slaves in ancient mills and bakeries described by the writer Apuleius.