SHOCKING new evidence has revealed that Romans returned to Pompeii after the devastating Mount Vesuvius eruption 1,946 years ago.
Until now little was known about the aftermath of the deadly volcanic eruption in 79 AD which killed thousands.
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The city was left in ruins and buried under layers of ash, leading many to believe any survivors had simply fled never to return.
Experts had long speculated that some inhabitants may have returned but there hasn’t been any solid evidence to prove it.
Archaeologists have now uncovered compelling signs that suggest people did go back – though life was very different to before.
It’s believed the poorest who couldn’t afford to set up new homes elsewhere returned to Pompeii.
And many hoped to find some of the valuables lost or left behind by the rich among the rubble.
Some life returned to the upper floors of the old houses that remained in tact.
Meanwhile, the ground floors were converted into cellars with ovens and mills, researchers say.
“Thanks to the new excavations, the picture is now clearer: post-79 Pompeii reemerges, less as a city than as a precarious and grey agglomeration, a kind of camp, a favela among the still-recognisable ruins of the Pompeii that once was,” site director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said.
Evidence that the site was reoccupied had been detected in the past, but in the rush to access Pompeii’s colourful frescoes and still-intact homes, “the faint traces of the site’s reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation”.
“The momentous episode of the city’s destruction in 79 AD has monopolised the memory,” Zuchtriegel added.
It’s thought Pompeii remained as an informal settlement until the 5th century.
The exact death toll isn’t known but archaeologists estimate it was between 15 and 20 per cent of Pompeii’s population.
Most people died as a result of the thermal shock from the giant cloud of gases and ash that engulfed the city.
Experts behind the find said: “Judging by the archaeological data, it must have been an informal settlement where people lived in precarious conditions, without the infrastructure and services typical of a Roman city.”
The destruction of Pompeii – what happened in 79 AD?
- Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy.
- It was destroyed, along with the Roman town of Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, and buried under volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
- The violent explosion killed the city’s inhabitants, with the site lost for around 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years after that.
- The thermal energy released from Vesuvius was said to be a hundred thousand times that of the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima-Nagasaki.
- The remains beneath the city have been preserved for more than a millennium due to the lack of air and moisture in the ground.
- During excavations, plaster was injected into the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies, allowing scientists to recreate their exact poses at the time of their deaths.
- Mount Vesuvius is arguably the most dangerous volcano on earth.
- It had been inactive for almost a century before roaring back into life and destroying Pompeii.
- Since then, it has exploded around three dozen more times – most recently in 1944 – and stands in close proximity to three million people.
- Although its current status is dormant, Vesuvius is an “extremely active” and unpredictable volcano, according to experts.
- To this day, scientists are finding cultural, architectural and human remains on the banks of Mount Vesuvius.
- Excavations at thermal baths in Pompeii’s ruins in February revealed the skeleton of a crouching child who perished in the 79 AD eruption.
Image credit: Getty
