Pompeii family's desperate fight for survival: Archaeologists discover a bed wedged against the door of a house - alongside the remains of a child

Daily Mail​

02-05-2025

When Mount Vesuvius began to erupt on the morning of 24 August, AD 79, most of Pompeii's residents were entirely unprepared.
But a harrowing new discovery reveals one family's desperate fight for survival.
Experts from Pompeii Archaeological Park have excavated a home dubbed the 'House of Elle and Frisso' along Via del Vesuvio.
There, they discovered the brave attempt of the inhabitants of the house to save themselves from the ongoing eruption.
The bed had been wedged against the door of the bedroom, as the family tried to protect themselves from the fury of Vesuvius.
Meanwhile, the remains of at least four individuals were found - including a child.
'Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives,' said the Director of the Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
'In this small, wonderfully decorated house we found traces of the inhabitants who tried to save themselves, blocking the entrance to a small room with a bed of which we made a cast.'
The remains of at least four individuals were found in the ancient Roman house - including a child
The House of Elle and Frisso was discovered back in 2018, and was named after a mythological painting found in one of the rooms.
Inside the house, the researchers found a large entrance hall leading to an atrium, a bedroom, a banquet hall, and a room with a roof and opening in the centre.
While this opening was designed for the passage of rainwater, it may have also given the family an early warning of the impending eruption.
The experts believe that lapilli - small rock fragments ejected during the first phase of a volcanic eruption - would have rained down on the home through the opening.
This gave the family enough time to take refuge in the bedroom, using the bed as a blockade.
Unfortunately, their efforts proved futile.
'They didn't make it,' Mr Zuchtriegel explained.
'In the end the pyroclastic flow arrived, a violent flow of very hot ash that filled here, as elsewhere, every room, the seismic shocks had already caused many buildings to collapse.
'An inferno that struck this city on August 24, 79 AD, of which we still find traces today.'
During the excavations, the remains of at least four people emerged, including a child.
The experts also found a bronze amulet known as a 'bulla', which they believe was probably worn by the child.
Over in the pantry, the researchers found a deposit of amphorae, and a set of bronze pottery consisting of a ladle, a single-handed jug, a basked vase, and a shell-shaped cup.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow.
Every single resident died when the southern Italian town was hit by a 500°C pyroclastic hot surge.
Pyroclastic flows are a dense collection of hot gas and volcanic materials that flow down the side of an erupting volcano at high speed.
They are more dangerous than lava because they travel faster, at speeds of around 450mph (700 km/h), and at temperatures of 1,000°C.
How Pompeii and Herculaneum were wiped off the map by devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago
What happened?
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow.
Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano in continental Europe and is thought to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.
Every single resident died instantly when the southern Italian town was hit by a 500°C pyroclastic hot surge.
Pyroclastic flows are a dense collection of hot gas and volcanic materials that flow down the side of an erupting volcano at high speed.
They are more dangerous than lava because they travel faster, at speeds of around 450mph (700 km/h), and at temperatures of 1,000°C.
An administrator and poet called Pliny the younger watched the disaster unfold from a distance.
Letters describing what he saw were found in the 16th century.
His writing suggests that the eruption caught the residents of Pompeii unaware.
He said that a column of smoke 'like an umbrella pine' rose from the volcano and made the towns around it as black as night.
People ran for their lives with torches, screaming and some wept as rain of ash and pumice fell for several hours.
While the eruption lasted for around 24 hours, the first pyroclastic surges began at midnight, causing the volcano's column to collapse.
An avalanche of hot ash, rock and poisonous gas rushed down the side of the volcano at 124mph (199kph), burying victims and remnants of everyday life.
Hundreds of refugees sheltering in the vaulted arcades at the seaside in Herculaneum, clutching their jewelry and money, were killed instantly.
As people fled Pompeii or hid in their homes, their bodies were covered by blankets of the surge.
While Pliny did not estimate how many people died, the event was said to be 'exceptional' and the number of deaths is thought to exceed 10,000.
What have they found?
This event ended the life of the cities but at the same time preserved them until rediscovery by archaeologists nearly 1700 years later.
The excavation of Pompeii, the industrial hub of the region and Herculaneum, a small beach resort, has given unparalleled insight into Roman life.
Archaeologists are continually uncovering more from the ash-covered city.
In May archaeologists uncovered an alleyway of grand houses, with balconies left mostly intact and still in their original hues.
Some of the balconies even had amphorae - the conical-shaped terra cotta vases that were used to hold wine and oil in ancient Roman times.
The discovery has been hailed as a 'complete novelty' - and the Italian Culture Ministry hopes they can be restored and opened to the public.
Upper stores have seldom been found among the ruins of the ancient town, which was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius volcano and buried under up to six meters of ash and volcanic rubble.
Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day.