Pompeii Family Blocked Bedroom Door With Bed to Escape Eruption, New Findings Reveal

In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted with tremendous force, burying the nearby Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum—and possibly around 16,000 people—under ash and pumice. Almost 2000 years later, archaeological investigations continue to reveal the victims’ final moments, immortalized in the solidified volcanic debris. Recent excavations at the house of Elle and Frisso—a Pompeii home named after a mythological fresco in one of its rooms—have unearthed the building’s main interior spaces. Archaeologists also uncovered heart-wrenching details of the inhabitants’ desperate attempts to shield themselves from the eruption, a discovery detailed in the E-Journal of Pompeii’s Excavations. “Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, said in a park statement. Archaeologists unearthed the building’s entrance, along with a central hall with a ... Read full article.