One day in 1979, Pompeii was attacked. The explosion of nearby Mount Vesuvius sent clouds of ashes and rocks into the atmosphere, blew an ancient Roman trade hub and resort into the constant hail of small volcanic rocks.
Many residents have run for their lives, trying to find their loved ones and safety before burying the estimated 1,500 residents whose volcanic fragments remain in Pompeii.
In a study published last month in Scabbi di Pompeii, scientists documented the event in a home in a fateful city. There, the family sought refuge in the back room by pushing a wooden bed against the door in a futile attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rock from the sky known as Rapili.
Although small, well-designated residences are known as the Hell and Flix's home after frescoes richly decorated in the dining room. It ominously owns the mythical brothers and sisters Phullissus and Helle, who escape the evil stepmother in winged RAM, and Helle falls, ominously owns into the sea below.
Like many ancient Roman residences, its atrium was an open roof room centrally located in the house, used for ventilation and rainwater collection. However, the rest that day allowed the volcanic rock to pass through the space more quickly. Most Pompeii “didn't know what was going on,” said Gabriel Zuchtliegel, the author of the study and director of Pompeii's Archaeological Park. “A lot of people thought the end of the world had come,” he added.
Over the next few years, the hot ash that eventually filled the house hardened, leaving an engraving by archaeologists filled with plaster to reconstruct the shape of the wooden bed as it remained. This technique helps to show the horror of Pompean's death at the last moment and how rotten everyday items made of wood, fabrics and leather are rotten items in the environment.
Four skeletal remnants, perhaps members of the same family, were identified in the study. Rapili, which reached nine feet tall in some places, was out of control. Researchers believe people make last attempts to escape, leaving behind a small barricaded room themselves. They only got to Triclinium, the official dining room where the bodies were found.
“The family of Hell and Flix's homes probably died when the so-called detrital flow, an avalanche of hot ash and toxic gases arrived and parts of the building collapsed,” Dr Zuchtliegel said.
He and his colleagues suggest that the four ruins found at the house remained behind and were from a family that may have included enslaved members who worked at the residence. Still, archaeologists don't know for certain whether they lived there or simply evacuated after the homeowners had already fled.
“It's not certain that the individuals found at home as victims are part of the family,” said Marcello Moguetta, an associate professor of Roman Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri, who was not involved in the study.
Among the skeletal ruins was a bronze bull to which the child belonged. Ancient amulets were worn like rockets around the necks of young, free boys, and protected from danger until they reached adulthood.
“There's a cruel irony in the fact that the amulets were supposed to protect them,” said Caitie Barrett, a professor of archaeology at Cornell University.
Bourbon explorers sent by Charles III in the 18th century carried out basic excavations of Pompeii, which obstructed the skeletal remains of the victims found at the homes of Hell and Frixus. They left holes in the walls as they tunneled up the residence searching for valuables like jewels and artwork. These early excavators had little interest in human remains, respecting their preservation, respecting death, and studying material culture.
But today, it is human sacrifice that we find most prominent to many archaeologists and visitors who regularly pour into Pompeii. Whether the bodies actually belong to people who are family members will likely be something researchers will try to discover through DNA analysis in the near future.
Whether family or not, it does not change the human tragedy of the story.
“Whatever the nature of their particular relationships, they would have been the last people to offer each other's comfort,” Dr. Barrett said.
