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News.com.au
11-05-2025
- General
- News.com.au
New Pompeii discovery reveals the tragic true extent of human suffering
There has been a chilling new Pompeii discovery that has revealed the true horror of the volcanic explosion. For one local Italian family, it was a day just like any other. Food was being prepared in the kitchen. A young boy played in the atrium. The father inspected the progress of his home's renovations. Then, a powerful explosion sent an enormous ash column high into the sky above the idyllic mountain backdrop to their Roman city. Soon, ash clouds and a hail of small pumice stones began raining down and the deadly fallout steadily increased in size and intensity. Many simply grabbed what they could and ran for the coast in the hope of finding a boat. This family, however, chose to stay put, as new findings reveal. The fiery ash and pumice quickly clogged the streets and rose up the walls. Then the weight of volcanic rock caused part of their home's roof to collapse. Four adults and the child retreated into a bedroom. There, they desperately sought to wedge a bed against the door to hold back the growing weight of rubble. 'They didn't make it,' said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. He's overseeing an extensive new excavation of the city. Pompeii It was a playground for the rich and famous. A scenic sea change for Rome's upwardly mobile and thriving community had grown around it to meet the exacting demands of the empire's elites. The year was 79AD. Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus had succeeded his father months earlier. Rome was at its heights of wealth, power and influence. Then, the sudden disappearance of Pompeii and the nearby town of Herculaneum rocked the empire to its core. However, the opulence and technical marvels of the towns they lived in have been flash-frozen in that moment. For the past 250 years, archaeologists have marvelled at the well-preserved architecture, murals, furniture and technology buried there. But the discovery of this family's fight for survival has rammed home the human tragedy it represents. House of sacrifice The address is a medium-sized townhouse (domus) on one of Pompeii's main roads, the Via del Vesuvio. It's been dubbed the House of Phrixus and Helle after the colourful frescoes of the Greek mythological twins found on the walls of its dining room (triclinium). The story of the youths is itself a tragedy. Their minor goddess stepmother had ordered them to be sacrificed to end a drought, but their birth mother sent a winged ram to save them. Helle, however, looked down and fell to her death in the sea below (the Hellespont). Phrixus survived, sacrificed the ram and took its golden fleece. Given the quality and extent of the murals, the domus was almost certainly owned by high-status and socially active members of the Pompeii community. They lived in comfort and opulence. The house's central courtyard (atrium) had a rainwater basin (impluvium). The kitchenware is made of finely shaped bronze and several amphorae hold the remains of a Roman luxury - fermented fish sauce (garum). The sturdy timber bed, however, could not save the family. 'Finally, the pyroclastic flow arrived — a violent wave of scorching ash that filled every room,' Zuchtregel explained. Their desperate bid to survive was revealed when archaeologists poured plaster into a void left by the bed's decomposed timbers in the baked earth. The remains of at least four adults were found nearby. A bronze amulet (bulla) found with a fifth body is of a type worn by male children before they came of age. Two of the victims were found huddled together, backed up against one of the bedroom's opulently painted walls. 'To excavate Pompeii and visit it means confronting the beauty of art but also the fragility of our lives,' Zuchtregel added. Struggle for survival Pompeii is no Atlantis. Details of the tragedy were burnt into history by those who observed and survived the eruption. Seventeen-year-old Pliny the Younger was visiting the town of Misenum, across the Bay of Naples from the eruption, with his family at the time. His letters detailing the exploits of his uncle have survived through the centuries. Pliny the Elder, a naval commander, was killed by noxious pyroclastic fumes as he led an emergency evacuation by sea. Pompeii alone is believed to have been inhabited by about 20,000 people. Most escaped. But archaeologists estimate that about 2000 lingered too long, or decided to ride the disaster out. There were warning signs, but these may not have been understood. The House of Phrixus and Helle is alongside a larger villa dubbed the House of Leda. It's also covered with exotic frescoes - most famously one of the Spartan Queen Leda and the god Zeus disguised as a Swan. Both buildings were being renovated at the time of the eruption. Archaeologists believe this is evidence that the region had been hit by a series of damaging earthquakes in the months before Vesuvius erupted. Now the buildings face a new threat. Their excavation is part of a recent emergency archaeological effort. Moisture is seeping through the volcanic rock from nearby illegal housing developments, which is eating away at the ancient remains. About two-thirds of Pompeii has been excavated. But the race is on to uncover and preserve a buried neighbourhood of some 1070 Roman homes containing about 13,000 rooms while we still can.
New York Times
11-05-2025
- Science
- New York Times
In Their Final Moments, a Pompeii Family Fought to Survive
One day in the year 79, Pompeii came under fire. The explosion of nearby Mount Vesuvius sent a mushroom cloud of ash and rock into the atmosphere, pummeling the ancient Roman trading hub and resort in a ceaseless hail of tiny volcanic rocks. Many residents ran for their lives, trying to find safety with their loved ones before searing volcanic debris buried the estimated 1,500 residents who remained in Pompeii. In a study published last month in the journal Scavi di Pompei, scientists documented events at one home in the doomed city where a family sought refuge inside a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rocks from the sky, known as lapilli. The small-but-well-appointed residence is known as the House of Helle and Phrixus, after a richly decorated fresco in the dining room. It depicts the mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle escaping their wicked stepmother on a winged ram only to have Helle fall and, ominously, drown in the sea below. As with many ancient Roman residences, its atrium, an open-roof room centrally located in the home, was used for ventilation and rainwater collection. But on that day, the recess allowed volcanic rock to more rapidly overtake the space. Most Pompeians 'had no clue what was happening,' said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, an author of the study and the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. 'Many thought the end of the world had come,' he added. In the years that followed, the hot ash that eventually buried the home solidified and left an imprint that archaeologists filled with plaster to reconstruct the shape of the wooden bed that remained. The technique helps illustrate the horror of the Pompeian dead in their final moments and how perishable everyday items made of wood, textiles and leather were situated in their environments. The skeletal remains of four people, most likely members of the same family, were identified in the study. The lapilli, which reached heights as high as nine feet in some locations, could not be controlled, and researchers believe the people made a final attempt to escape, leaving the small room in which they had barricaded themselves. They got only as far as the triclinium, the formal dining room where their remains were found. 'The family in the House of Helle and Phrixus probably died when the so-called pyroclastic flow, an avalanche of hot ash and toxic gas, arrived and parts of the building collapsed,' Dr. Zuchtriegel said. He and his colleagues suggest that the remains of the four people found in the home were from a family that stayed behind and may have included some enslaved members who worked at the residence. Still, archaeologists don't know for sure if they lived there or simply took refuge after the homeowners had already escaped. 'It's not certain that the individuals found in the house as victims were part of the family,' said Marcello Mogetta, an associate professor of Roman art and archaeology at the University of Missouri who was not involved in the study. Among the skeletal remains was a bronze bulla that belonged to a child. The ancient amulets were worn like lockets around the necks of young free boys to shield them from danger until they reached adulthood. 'The amulet was supposed to protect them, so there's a cruel irony to the fact that it didn't,' said Caitie Barrett, a professor of archaeology at Cornell University who was not involved in the study. Bourbon explorers sent by Charles III in the 18th century carried out rudimentary excavations of Pompeii that disturbed the skeletal remains of the victims found in the House of Helle and Phrixus. When they tunneled into the residence in search of valuables like jewelry and artwork, they left behind holes in the walls. These early excavators often had little interest in human remains, either in respecting their preservation, dignifying their deaths or studying their material culture. But today it's the human toll that feels most prominent for archaeologists and for many of the visitors who regularly pour into Pompeii. Whether or not the remains belonged to those who were indeed family will be something that researchers may try to uncover through DNA analysis in the near future. Family or not, it doesn't change the human tragedy of the story. 'Whatever the nature of their specific relations, they would have been the last people to offer each other comfort at the end,' Dr. Barrett said.
