A team of archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old house in Rabat, complete with a waste disposal system and pottery remains.  

Found not far from Heritage Malta's Domvs Romana, the house, whose walls stretched three-metre-high appears to have been owned by an affluent individual during Roman rule. The house's interior was likely decorated with terracotta floor tiles and frescoes.

The discovery was made by a team of researchers and six students from the University of South Florida.

The house and the Domvs Romana would have been in the centre of the ancient city of Melite - modern-day Rabat and Mdina.

The Domvs Romana was home to an ancient Roman aristocrat. Its remains, including intricate mosaics, shed lite on the luxurious life of nobles in the era. 

The discovery helps provide a better understanding of the urban fabric of ancient Melite and the area’s spatial configuration, USF said in a statement.

The university's Institute for Digital Exploration is cooperating with Heritage Malta on the Melite Civitas Romana Project, focusing on archaeological discoveries in the Domvs Romana in Rabat and its surroundings. 

Researchers and students are looking to learn as much as possible about the house's owner, with one piece of pottery providing an important clue. 

"The most exciting moment for me was during our third week while cleaning pottery, a small fragment I had been scrubbing revealed the engraved letters D-A-O-I, a possible hint for somebody’s name. Everyone was pumped and shared theories on the engraving. It was a very cool find,” said Sarah Hassam, a research team member. 

Items disposed as garbage are also providing important clues to the lives of those that inhabited the house. 

“By studying this deposit, we will learn a lot about the life of those who lived in the house. It is surprising how much you can learn about people from their garbage,” said Davide Tanasi, director of the Institute for Digital Exploration. 

The institute said it will continue exploring the newly discovered house next summer to learn more about the identity of its owner.