Latest news with #HouseofHelleandPhrixus
CNN
17-05-2025
- Science
- CNN
Ancient home shows evidence of how Pompeiians tried to shelter from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that four people, including a child, in the ancient Roman town of Pompeii used furniture to block a bedroom door and shield themselves from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Ultimately, the home became their final resting place, according to new research published in April in the E-Journal of the Pompeii Excavations. During the catastrophic eruption, the volcano spewed hot, lethal gases and ash into the air, slowly killing most of the city's population. Ash and volcanic rock called pumice then covered Pompeii and its residents, eerily preserving the victims' last moments for millennia. The excavation team made the discovery while investigating the House of Helle and Phrixus, named for a mythological painting found in the home. Researchers partially investigated the home's front rooms between 2018 and 2019, but the team behind the new study revisited the site over the past couple of years, exposing one-third of the building in preparation to restore and open it to the public, said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. 'Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives,' Zuchtriegel said in a statement. The investigation has also revealed that the home was under renovation during the time of the eruption, and ironically, the very art for which the house is named echoes the tragic events that unfolded within it, the researchers said. During the excavations, the team unearthed an atrium with a water collection basin, a banquet hall with lavishly decorated walls, a room with a central opening for rainwater and the bedchamber. Small fragments of volcanic debris probably fell like rain through the opening during the first phases of the eruption, causing the four people inside the home to rush to the bedroom and blockade it with a bed to protect themselves. But as the fallout from the eruption continued, the researchers believe the inhabitants pulled back the bed from the door and attempted to escape. The Pompeiians' remains were found in the banquet hall. 'The arrival of the first pyroclastic cloud that entered the ancient city or the collapse of parts of the upper floors could then have caused the death of the four victims,' the study noted. Pyroclastic clouds, or a dense mixture of ash, gas and rock dispersed during a volcanic eruption, caused a searing, rapid avalanche of debris to fill the home, Zuchtriegel said. The team made a cast of the bed after identifying voids left by the decomposition of the bed frame and pouring plaster inside it to preserve its shape. The scene is just one of many examples that serve as a reminder of the terror and agony faced by Pompeii's residents as they attempted to seek shelter, he added. 'Many took shelter in small rooms of buildings presumably, because they felt safer and more secure than in open areas exposed to the volcanic material raining down,' Zuchtriegel said. 'Just in the last year we have discovered a couple of victims who had barricaded themselves in the narrow entrance hall to The House of the Painters at Work. Having closed the doors at each end of the hallway, they must have believed and hoped they would be protected.' And in the House of the Thiasus, a young man and an older woman closed the window and door to a small room to protect themselves, only to get stuck there. 'Nevertheless, hours into the eruption (the victims) became trapped as the pumice accumulated outside, blocking any potential escape route should they have decided to flee,' Zuchtriegel said. In the home where the four people examined in the new study died, a central wall in the banquet hall has a fresco of Phrixus and his sister Helle from Greek mythology. As the myth goes, Helle and Phrixus escape their hateful stepmother Ino by flying away on a ram with golden fleece. But during the escape, Helle falls into a strip of sea, which was named Hellespont after her — it's known today as the Dardanelles or the Strait of Gallipoli in Turkey. The fresco captures the moment when Helle holds out a hand to Phrixus for help. The ancient story likely no longer held any religious value for Pompeii residents and served merely as a decoration and status display, Zuchtriegel said. But in hindsight, it mirrors the desperate moments faced by the people trapped in the house during the eruption. 'The discovery of a group of individuals, who perhaps represent only a few of the household, were clinging to hope of survival in the face of horror and tragedy much like Helle herself who, in the fresco that lends its name to the house, attempts to cling on to her twin brother in vain,' he said in an email. 'When we excavate everything that we find is a surprise and in Pompeii those surprises come in the form of fragments and clues that can tell very personal stories but also shed light on the collective experience of loss and disaster in tandem with the hope and aspirations of the population,' Zuchtriegel added. The removal of thresholds, missing decorations and portions of cut masonry at the entrance suggest the house undergoing a renovation — but the disruption wasn't significant enough to keep people from living there or seeking refuge during the eruption. The house was also still full of elegant items and was well decorated, Zuchtriegel said. In addition to the human remains, the team also found a bronze bulla, or an amulet worn by boys until they reached adulthood. Amphorae — two-handled jars used for storing liquids — were uncovered in a basement that was utilized as a pantry. Some of the jars contained garum, a pungent fish sauce that was common at the time. The researchers also found a set of bronze pottery, including a cup shaped like a shell, a basket vase, a ladle and a single-handled jug. 'Each house in Pompeii is unique,' Zuchtriegel said. 'Each has its peculiarities, its unique decorations, and its individual assortment of objects reflecting the personal choices and tastes as well as the fortunes and of course, misfortunes of its ancient occupants. The House of Helle and Phrixus was quite small, but it had marvelous paintings, which express the ambition of these people to rise in the social hierarchy. At the same time, they had to be careful not to lose their status.'
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.
