One day in the year 79Pompeii came under fire. The explosion of the nearby Mount Vesuvius sent a mushroom cloud of As and Rock in the atmosphere, with the ancient Roman trade hub and his refuge in a continuous hail of small volcanic rocks.
Many residents ran to their lives and tried to find safety with their loved ones before breaking volcanic debris the estimated 1500 inhabitants who continued to be in Pompeii.
In a study published last month in the magazine Scavi di PompeiScientists documented events in a house in the doomed city where a family sought a refuge in a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a stream of volcanic rocks from the air, known as Lapilli.
The Klein-Mar-Well-Adjust house is known as the house of Helle and Phrixus, after a richly decorated Fresco in the dining room. It shows the mythological brothers and sisters Phrixus and Helle who escape their bad stepmother on a winged ram only to drop Hellle and, ominously, drown in the sea below.
As with many old Roman homes, the Atrium, an open-ranger room was centrally located in the house, used for ventilation and rainwater collection. But on that day the recessed volcanic rock had the space overtaken faster. Most Pompenans “had no idea what happened,” said Gabriel sighsAn 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 finally buried the house and left a print that archaeologists filled with plaster to reconstruct the shape of the wooden bed that was over. The technology helps to illustrate the horror of the Pompeisian dead in their last moments and how perishable everyday items made of wood, textiles and leather were located in their environment.
The skeleton -like remains of four people, most likely members of the same family, were identified in the study. The Lapilli, which reached as high as nine feet at some locations, could not be checked and researchers believe that people have made a final attempt to escape, causing the small room in which they had barricaded themselves. They only came to 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 stream, an avalanche of hot axis and toxic gas, arrived and parts of the The building has collapsed“Said Dr. Sigh.
He and his colleagues suggest that the remains of the four people who were found in the house were from a family that remains and possibly included a few slaved members who worked in the residence. Yet archaeologists are not sure if they lived there or just resorted after the homeowners had already escaped.
“It is not certain that the people found in the house as victims are part of the family,” said Marcello MogettaAssistantial teacher Roman art and archeology at the University of Missouri who was not involved in the study.
Among the skeletal residues was a bronze bulla who belonged to a child. The old amulets were worn as a compassion around the neck of young free boys to protect them against danger until they reached maturity.
“The amulet was supposed to protect them, so there is a cruel irony in the fact that it didn’t work,” said Caate BarrettA professor in archeology at Cornell University who was not involved in the study.
Bourbon -discovering travelers sent by Charles III In the 18th century, Rudimentary Excavations of Pompeii carried out the skeleton -like remains of the victims in the house of Helle and Phrixus. When they tunned in the home in search of valuables such as jewelry and artworks, they left holes in the walls. These early excavators often had little interest in human remains, either when respecting their preservation, worthy of their death or studying their material culture.
But today it is the human toll that feels the most prominent for archaeologists and for many of the visitors who regularly enter Pompeii. Whether or not the remains belong to those who were indeed family, will be something that researchers can try Discover by DNA analysis In the near future.
Family or not, it does not change the human tragedy of the story.
“Whatever the nature of their specific relations, they would have been the last people who would offer each other comfort at the end,” said Dr. Barrett.
- Advertisement -
