The ancient city of Pompeii was populated relatively quickly and “anarchically” after it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79, as new excavations reveal. The new inhabitants were probably centered survivors of eruption, perhaps also homeless people from other regions. They searched for valuable objects and a new place to stay in the ruins, but lived more under precarious living situations. A reconstruction of the Roman infrastructure apparently failed. In the fifth century, the city was finally finally left.
In 79 AD the Vulkan Vesuvius broke out and buried the 20,000-inhabitant city of Pompeii under a thick lava and ash layer. Since 1748 archaeologists have been giving the remains of the city with a systematic way. So far, they have uncovered two thirds of the area and have found remarkably well -preserved frescoes and still intact furniture. However, only around 1,300 victims were discovered – not even ten percent of the people living there. This raises the question: How many of the residents really died and how many survived? Many may not die in the city, but outside the center, while fleeing from the disaster. Inscriptions in other cities show that at least some people from Pompeii escaped, survived and settled somewhere else.
The returnee lived in the ruins for centuries
New finds from the so -called “Insula Meridionalis”, the southern district of the ancient city center of Pompeii, are now demonstrated by a long -cherished assumption: Pompeii was partially settled again after the destruction by survivors. “The data show that life continued after the catastrophe, although such evidence had been ignored in previous excavations,” reports a team around Gabriel Büchtriegel from the Archaeological Park Pompeii. So far, little has been dug in the insula, which is why certificates from this phase have been preserved.
The finds show that people returned relatively quickly after the catastrophe and lived in Pompeii until the fifth century. They left herds, ovens and mills, as well as lamps and different kitchen dishes such as pots, bowls, pans and ceramic pans. Coins of younger dates were also found in the ruins. These returnees apparently lived in the upper floors of the ruins, which protruded from the ashes. The rooms that were once on the ground floor later served them as a basement. Sometimes the later residents pulled up new walls and walls.
The archaeologists suspect that, in particular, medium -sized people returned to their destroyed Pompeii who could not afford a new life in another city. Other homeless people could have joined this. Plants soon grew back in the ash desert of the area, from which the returnees could feed themselves. From the rubble, they could also have dug up and sold valuables to secure their survival in the improvised refuge.
Reconstruction failed
It is known that the Roman emperor Titus sent two former consules to Pompeii immediately after the eruption. Apparently, these should promote the re -establishment and reconstruction of Pompeii and secure the valuables of deceased in the anarchic conditions of the destroyed city. But despite this reconstruction attempt, Pompeii never reached his earlier shine again, but rather lived through poverty and precarious living situations.
“Due to the new excavations, the picture becomes increasingly clear: a Pompeii after 79 begins to reappear,” says Buchtriegel. “It was less a city than a precarious gray area, a kind of campsite with huts that sprout between the still recognizable ruins of the former city of Pompeii.” The orderly infrastructure, which is known from other Roman cities and also the Pompeii in front of the catastrophe, did not arise after the devastating volcanic eruption. A second major eruption of the Vesuvi could have led to the final task of the city in the fifth century, in 472, the team reports. Finds later have not appeared.
Source: Archaeological Park of Pompeii; E-journal of excavations
