Most Shocking Side Of Ancient Slavery: Inside Pompeii's "Prison Bakery"

The bakery, where slaves and animals were forced to perform the backbreaking task of turning the millstones, had no communication with outside world.

Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have uncovered a "prison bakery" where slaves and blindfolded donkeys were kept locked up underground to grind grain for bread, officials said this week.

Underneath a house in the ruins they found "a cramped room with no view of the outside world and with small windows high in the wall, with iron bars, to let the light in", the Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced on Friday.

Archaeologists deduced they had found a "prison bakery", the UNESCO World Heritage Site near Naples, southern Italy, said on its website.