Researchers Uncover a Bathhouse Complex in Ancient Pompeii

01Archaeological research has uncovered another treasure of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, a large private bathhouse.

02The explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 70 AD buried Pompeii in thick ash, wreckage, and lava, or hot liquid rock.

03Archaeologists are continuing to find remains of the city under the ground.

04The bathhouse was part of a large private house, the scientists said.

05The bathhouse holds a series of rooms that would have provided hot, warm, or cold conditions.

06The art and design of the complex, including mosaic works, also suggest the owner was wealthy.

07We have here perhaps the largest thermal complex in a private house in Pompeii, said Gabriel Zutriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park.

08He explained that Pompeii's powerful and wealthy set up large spaces at their homes to hold major gatherings for ceremonies and other purposes.

09It was an opportunity to show the wealth in which they lived and also to have a nice thermal treatment, he said.

10The baths were unearthed in the so-called Regio 9, a large central area of Pompeii Park that is still unexplored.

11Recently, archaeologists working in the same area found a bakery, a laundry, and two homes.

12They also found the bones of three people who died in the volcanic burst.

13Pompeii was not the only city destroyed in the explosion.

14It also buried the city of Herculaneum.

15Zutriegel said wealthy citizens of Pompeii often would first take a bath and then attend a banquet.

16Or a big meal.

17The private thermal complex permitted them to do so together at the home where the banquet was held.

18There is room for about 30 people who could do the whole routine, and that could also be done in public baths.

19So there is the caldarium, a very warm environment, and also a large tub with cold water, he said.

20I'm Katie Weaver.