• Archeology The first genome of a Pompeii victim opens a window on life in ancient Rome

The

archaeological site of Pompeii

, in southern Italy, never ceases to amaze and today announced the

discovery of several

"middle class" apartments with

cabinets full of

locked objects from the eruption that devastated the city two millennia ago.

The director of

the archaeological park

, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, explained that the discovery of these furnished rooms offers information on the

middle and lower classes of Pompeii

, "the majority of its population but little represented in the sources".

The excavation revolves around what is known as

Casa del Larario

, a luxurious sacred space that came to light in 2018, and the experts have now entered

four of the rooms that it included

, two on the first floor and two others on the ground floor. , at street level.

Inside they have come across

numerous pieces of furniture and objects that illustrate the life

of the Pompeian "middle class" at the moment that everything ended, when the

Vesuvius volcano

erupted in 79 AD, burying this Roman colony for almost

two millennia

.

in different rooms

In one of the rooms, simple and with a

beaten earth floor

, perhaps a pantry, there was a cupboard with five shelves and two meters high that

still contains everyday objects such as glasses

, plates, ceramics, small containers and amphorae.

The cabinet is in the

exact place it was at the time of the eruption

and is partly broken because the weight of the pyroplastic material caused the roof of the house to collapse.

The

experts will continue to investigate

what the ash hides on its lower shelves, little by little to protect it.

In

another

small room, with no decoration on its walls, you can see a simple bed with part of its pillow,

a three-legged table

with a glass on top and an open trunk, as it is believed that it was emptied by its owner at the Time to

escape from the fire

.

In another of the rooms on the first floor, another cupboard has been found

with plates and glasses for domestic use

, a bronze basin and a "perfume burner" or "perfumer" in excellent condition.

"In the

Roman Empire

there was a wide swath of the population that fought for their own social status, a vulnerable class in

political crises and famines

but ambitious when it came to social climbing," Zuchtriegel explained.

"We do not know the inhabitants of the house but surely

the culture of leisure

that inspires the wonderful decoration of the patio represents a future that they dreamed of rather than

a lived reality

", pointed out the director of the site.

The

Minister of Culture

, Dario Franceschini, has celebrated this news: "

Pompeii

never ceases to amaze and is a beautiful story of recovery, proof that

if Italy works as a team and invests in young people

, research and innovation achieve extraordinary results ".

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