Pompeii: People returned to live there after eruption, archeologists say
What is Pompeii and what happened there?
Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Italy's second most-visited tourist spot after the Colosseum in Rome.Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD it was a bustling city. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, it covered the whole city in a thick layer of ashLumps of solid lava called pumice stones rained down on the town for 18 hours.The ash buried the buildings, the objects and even the people who lived them, preserving everything. This has made it a site of huge historical importance giving archeologists a glimpse into how people lived at the time.
What does the new evidence show?
Experts believed before that survivors had returned to the ruins, but now archeologists say this has been confirmed by new research.Archaeologists say these previous residents were joined by others looking for a place to settle. They describe the new living arrangements to be more like a camp. "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... a kind of camp, a favela among the still recognisable ruins of the Pompeii that once was," said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the site.Some evidence that the site was reoccupied had been found in the past. But the site director said in the rush to access Pompeii's colourful frescoes and still-intact homes, "the faint traces of the site's reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation".
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