In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted in what would become one of humanity’s most infamous ancient tragedies. Tens of centuries later, archaeologists eagerly dug through the ash and pumice to rediscover the buried Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in all their preserved glory. In their eagerness, however, they may have missed an important layer of history.
While working in the Insula meridionalis—the southern quarter of Pompeii’s ancient urban center—archaeologists uncovered evidence confirming the hypothesis that, after 79 CE, people returned to live among Pompeii’s ruins for hundreds of years. The team’s findings, which they describe in a study published this week in Pompeii’s excavation’s E-Journal, shed light on events that have long lived in the shadow of better-studied history.
“The epochal episode of the destruction of the city in 79 AD has monopolized memory,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director general of Pompeii’s archaeological park and co-author of the study, said in a park statement. “In the enthusiasm of reaching the levels of ‘79, with wonderfully preserved frescoes and still-intact furnishings, the faint traces of the site’s reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation.”
Not all survivors of that terrible day would have had the means to start over somewhere else. According to the researchers, this could explain why some may have returned to the destroyed city, whose upper levels were still visible above the ashes. Soon enough, vegetation would have also grown back. The returning former residents may have also been joined by other people “with nothing to lose,” according to the statement. After all, there were riches to be found among the ashes and victims’ bodies.
Archaeologists found traces of settlement among Pompeii’s ruins. © Pompeii Archaeological Park
As such, life returned to Pompeii. People lived among the ruins of the buildings’ upper floors, using the form