After an earthquake devastated the bustling Roman city of Pompeii, nestled at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, in 62 CE, the public baths were among the first buildings to be reconstructed. These were rebuilt to be bigger than before. With their opulent porticoes, numerous types of basins, and elaborate floor and wall heating systems, the Stabian Baths were a symbol of Pompeii’s luxury and resilience. However, this grandeur was short-lived; Mount Vesuvius would bury the ancient city under a layer of stone, dust, and ash only seventeen years later.

Perfectly Preserved

For archaeologists like Monika Trümper, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, a volcano which is still active to this day, was not all bad. After all, for Dr. Trümper, professor of classical archaeology at Freie Universität and expert in ancient bathing culture, opportunities to carry out research on public baths as well-preserved as these are few and far between. The layer of ash that laid waste to Pompeii also protected the ruins from the elements and meant that the ancient bath complex was not later used as a source of stone – a fate that befell many ancient buildings during the Middle Ages. This means that even now, 274 years after professional archaeological excavations began in Pompeii back in 1748, there is still plenty to discover. Centimeter by centimeter, layer by layer, archaeologists are continuing to dig deeper into the past of the ruined city and the Stabian Baths located near its center.

Founded in pre-Roman times around the sixth century BCE, Pompeii boasted several innovative public baths from the second century BCE onwards. Until the eruption in 79 CE, these baths were regularly improved and modernized. “These upgrades were also carried out in a very practical and economic way. For example, they reused the rubble from broken or destroyed masonry to fill niches, build new walls, or raise the floor level.” Before Vesuvius erupted, the bathing culture at Pompeii included gymnastics exercises, massages, manicures, beauty treatments, cold baths, medium temperature baths, and laconica. Much like the modern sauna experience, the sweating caused by a visit to the laconicum (sweating room) was supposed to relax the body, remove toxins, and prevent illnesses. This made it all the more surprising that – according to prevailing expert opinion – a laconicum was only installed in the Stabian Baths during its second phase of construction, i.e., after 80 BCE.

Previously Undiscovered: A Giant Hot Room 7.15 Meters in Diameter

However, Trümper and her team, comprised of researchers and students from Freie Universität Berlin, University of Oxford, and the Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, would soon contest this belief with a sensational find. In September 2021, the team excavated a large, circular laconicum, 7.15 meters in diameter, in the colonnaded courtyard of the Stabian Baths. What was even more impressive: this laconicum could be dated back to the first phase of the baths’ construction. “It was there all along,” says Trümper, who still sounds as if she cannot quite believe it. After all, other teams of archaeologists had excavated this site before – and come up empty-handed. However, Trümper, an expert in Greco-Roman bathing culture, stayed true to her archaeological instincts. “This is the type of thing you can only discover through excavation work.” The team had originally planned to continue with the Stabian Baths excavation project, which has been running since 2015, with a large-scale dig in 2020. But then came the Covid-19 pandemic. The team’s luck began to change in 2021. “We were able to carry out excavation work in the five weeks between lockdowns in Germany,” says Trümper. However, conditions were less than ideal. “When our colleagues from Oxford arrived in Pompeii, they first had to quarantine,” says Trümper. After that the team was could finally get to work. In 2022, they were even able to continue with only limited restrictions – a stroke of good fortune for Trümper and the excavation campaign, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It did not take long before the research group once again made headlines with another interesting find in the summer of 2022.

Shell-Shocked

The archaeologists discovered the remains of a pregnant tortoise in the ruins of one of the shops lining the exterior of the Stabian Baths. How did it end up there? Was it yet another victim of the volcanic eruption in 79 CE? Or was it possible that she had made her home there seventeen years earlier when the shops had not yet been rebuilt? Were parts of Pompeii home to other wild animals like this tortoise before the city was ultimately destroyed? To solve the mystery, Trümper and her team analyzed the layers of earth around the tortoise. The result? It is possible that the tortoise was already in the shop in the early first century CE, long before the earthquake and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Was she intended to be used as a culinary delicacy for hungry visitors to the baths – egg and all? Or did she enter the baths during construction work carried out to connect the complex to the city’s water supply? This would have meant that the tortoise would have met her end at a time when Pompeii’s bathing culture was just entering its heyday.

The Stabian Baths benefited greatly from the introduction of piped water into the city in the early first century CE. This meant that water no longer had to be laboriously collected by hand. “With a frigidarium (cold room), a large swimming pool for men, and nymphaea (richly decorated fountain rooms), the Stabian Baths were like an ancient water park,” explains Trümper. The daily visits to the baths grew more extensive, and the Stabian Baths increasingly became a hub of social activity. They were a place to meet up, establish contacts, and make dinner plans.

But was Pompeii a city trying to emulate Rome and, if so, when did this start? “This is a topic that researchers can’t agree upon – to date, we haven’t been able to find any evidence of public baths in Rome from the second or first century BCE,” says Trümper, who is planning to return to Pompeii in March 2023 for the last excavation of the project. However, this trip will not mark the end of her research on and in the ancient city. “Your work is never really done in Pompeii,” says Trümper, “There’s always something new to discover.”

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This article originally appeared in German on November 26, 2022, in the Tagesspiegel newspaper supplement published by Freie Universität Berlin.