This past Tuesday, our class got the privilege of visiting the ruins of a Roman bath house and a Roman amphitheater. Just walking down into the site was so awesome because we got to experience what a real archaeological site is like. There were boxes and boxes of paper, ladders, desks- it just all looked like a working site even though they are not allowed to touch the site according to British law. There were remains of the outside walls of the actual house as well as the bath house, the floors which had small tiles, and even the small pillars that raised the floor so steam could travel. It was astounding to see the work and technology that made the bath house function when everything relied on manual labor. The bath house was a private one in the middle of a house’s courtyard. The steam would have been constantly provided by slaves who heated wood and other materials. Bathing was a secular ritual for the Romans, and would have taken place almost every day. It was absolutely amazing to see the remains of a part of everyday life for the Romans. 

     The Roman amphitheater was also very interesting but very different from the remains of the bath house. The museum has built a modern rendition of what the rest of the amphitheater would look like around the ruins which looked interesting against the historical significance of the ruins. The amphitheater would have been used as a place of entertainment where slaves would fight to the death with and without weapons. It was very cool it be able to see a structure with similar function to the colosseum right in the middle of the city. 

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