New evidence at Pompeii shows survivors of Mount Vesuvius eruption returned to live in “precarious conditions”

Archaeologists have discovered new evidence pointing to the reoccupation of Pompeii following the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius that left the city in ruins, the directors of the famous site said Wednesday.

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

Archaeologists believe they were joined by others looking for a place to settle and hoping to find valuable items left by Pompeii’s earlier residents in the rubble.

“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,” before the area was completely abandoned in the fifth century, they said in a statement.

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

“Thanks to the new excavations, the picture is now clearer: post-79 Pompeii reemerges, more than a city, a precarious and grey agglomeration, a kind of camp, a favela among the still recognizable ruins of the Pompeii that once was,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the site.

Evidence that the site was reoccupied had been detected in the past, but in the rush to access Pompeii’s colorful 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 monopolized the memory,” said Zuchtriegel.

Archaeologists estimate that 15-20% of Pompeii’s population died in the eruption, mostly from thermal shock as a giant cloud of gases and ash covered the city.

Volcanic ash buried the Roman city, perfectly preserving the homes, public buildings, objects and even the people until its discovery in the late 16th century.

Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is Italy’s second most-visited tourist spot after the Colosseum in Rome, with some 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 ash.

The new findings mark the latest in a string of recent discoveries in Pompeii this year.

In April, life-sized statues of a man and a woman were discovered in a tomb at the site. In February, paintings depicting Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, were discovered. The images were painted on the walls of a large banquet room. The month before that, archaeologists excavated a large private bathhouse that included multiple rooms and a plunge pool.