When the Vesuvius broke out around 2000 years ago and the city of Pompeii buried under Asche and Lava, life ended abruptly for the residents. Any rescue attempts were in vain. This now confirms the latest excavation from another house from Pompeii. A bed set across the door testifies to the desperate attempts by people to protect themselves from the volcanic eruption.
The “House of Helle and Phrixus” is located on Via del Vesuvio in Pompeii and, like the entire city, was spilled in 79 when the Vesuvios out. The medium -sized house was named after the mythological murals in one of the rooms found in 2018. The fresco shows Phrixos, the king of Böotia, on the Golden Aries and his sister Helle, who asks her brother for help. According to the myth, the two siblings of persecution escaped by their stepmother Inos by flew on the back of a ram. On the way, brightly fell into the sea and drowned – the Hellespont is named after her.
Verbled barricading in the bedroom
In recent years, archaeologists around Maria Rispoli from the Archaeological Park Pompeii have excavated and examined the house of Helle and Phrixus bit by bit in order to learn more about the last hours of its residents. The excavations put an entrance area on the ground floor, an approximately three by three meter bedroom, an approximately five by four meter dining room with plenty of decorated walls – including the fresco of Helle and Phrixus – as well as an approximately five by three meter living room with a basin, the roof of which had a central opening for the incidence of rainwater. This opening probably got into the house at the beginning of the outbreak of the volcano.
The residents of the house then searched for protection against the volcanic stone falling from heaven, as the finds suggested. So the remains of at least four people, including one or more children, were found in the dining room of the house. The entrance to this room once blocked a wooden bed frame, from which after its decay only cavities are left in the petrified ash. The archaeologists filled them with plaster to get an impression of the bed.
“In this beautifully decorated little house we found traces of its residents who tried to save themselves by blocking the entrance to a small room with a bed. Ultimately, they did not survive: the pyroclastic current, a huge stream of glowing ash, reached the city and fulfilled every room,” also reports senior author Gabriel Büchtriegel from the archaeological park in Pompei. According to the researchers, the house residents either died of the glowingly hot gases of the first pyroclastic cloud or that the upper floor of the house collapsed. “Seismic vibrations had previously collapsed many buildings. It was hell that this city met on August 24, 79.
More finds testify to everyday life in Pompeii
In the house, the researchers also found various objects, including a bronze amulet, which was traditionally worn by boys. It could have heard the child found in the house. Under a staircase there was a camp with several amphorae, some of which contained a fish sauce popular in antiquity. The vessels were therefore a kind of pantry. In addition, the team found a set of bronze vessels, including a creative cellar, a jug with a handle, a basket -shaped vase and a mussel -shaped cup. The objects testify to everyday life in Pompeii before the catastrophe.
What the archaeologists did not find were thresholds and decorations in some sections of the house. Together with holes and joints in the walls at the house entrance, this could indicate that the house was renovated at the time of the volcanic eruption. The building was restored after the excavations were completed to make it accessible to visitors in the future.
Source: Parco Archeologico di Pompei; Specialist articles: E-Journal Scavi di Pompei (04/30/25)