People reoccupied Pompeii after Vesuvius eruption, archaeologists find | Archaeology

Archaeologists have discovered new evidence showing the reoccupation of Pompeii after the AD79 eruption of Montveu which left the city in ruins.

Despite the massive destruction suffered by Pompeii, an ancient Roman city which houses more than 20,000 people before the eruption, some survivors who could not afford to start a new life elsewhere would have returned to live in the devastated area.

Archaeologists believe that they were joined by others in search of a place to settle down and hope to find precious objects in the rubble by the previous residents of Pompeii.

“To judge by the archaeological data, it must be an informal regulation where people lived in precarious conditions, without the infrastructure and the typical services of a Roman city”, before the region was completely abandoned in the 5th century, the researchers said in a press release on Wednesday.

While a life returned to the upper floors of the old houses, the old floor floors were converted into cellars with ovens and mills.

“Thanks to the new excavations, the image is now clearer: Pompeii re -emerge after 79, more than a city, a precarious and gray agglomeration, a sort of camp, a favela among the still recognizable ruins of Pompeii which was formerly,” said Gabriel Zuichtrie, the director of the site.

Evidence that the site has been reoccupied had been detected in the past, but in a rush to access the colorful frescoes of Pompeii and to still intact houses, “the weak traces of the reoccupation of the site have been literally deleted and often swept away without any documentation”.

“The capital episode of the destruction of the city in AD79 monopolized the memory,” said Zuchtriegel.

Archaeologists estimate that 15 to 20% of the Pompeii population died in the eruption, mainly thermal shocks as a giant gas and ash cloud covered the city.

The volcanic ashes then buried the Roman city, perfectly preserving the houses, the public buildings, the objects and even the people who had lived there until its discovery at the end of the 16th century.

UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pompeii is the second tourist place visited by Italy after the Colosseum in Rome, with around 4.17 million visitors last year.

It covers a total area of approximately 22 hectares (54.4 acres), a third of which is still buried under ashes.