New Pompeii find reveals clues into Ancient Roman’s city’s demise

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 picturesque mountain backdrop to their Roman city.

Soon, ash clouds and a hail of small pumice stones* began raining down and the deadly fallout steadily grew.

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.

The family took shelter in a bedroom where they tried to hold back the weight of the rubble by wedging a bed against the door.

“They didn’t make it,” said Archaeological Park of Pompeii* director Gabriel Zuchtriegel, who has been overseeing an extensive new excavation of the ancient Roman city.

THE FALL OF POMPEII
It was a playground for the rich and famous. A scenic sea change for Rome’s wealthy travellers, a thriving community had grown around it to meet the demands of the empire’s elites. The year was 79AD.

Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus had succeeded his father months earlier. Rome was at the height of its wealth, power and influence.

Then, the sudden disappearance of Pompeii and the nearby town of Herculaneum caused by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius* rocked the empire to its core.

But the opulence* and technical marvels of the towns were instantly frozen in time. And for the past 250 years, archaeologists have marvelled at the well-preserved architecture, murals, furniture and technology buried there.

HOUSE OF PHRIXUS AND HELLE
The townhouse (domus) belonging to the family who sadly perished from the eruption was recently excavated by Mr Zuchtriegel and his team.

On one of Pompeii’s main roads, the Via del Vesuvio, the townhouse has 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 mythical twins is itself a tale of loss.

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.

Tragedy struck when the female twin, Helle, looked down and fell to her death in the sea below (the Hellespont). The male twin Phrixus survived, sacrificed the ram and took its famous golden fleece*.

Given the quality and extent of the murals, the domus was most likely owned by high-status and socially active* members of the Pompeii community.

They lived in comfort and riches. The house’s central courtyard (atrium) had a rainwater basin (impluvium).

The kitchenware is made of finely shaped bronze and several amphorae, tall Roman jugs, hold the remains of a Roman luxury: fermented fish sauce (garum).

Unfortunately, the family of the home didn’t survive the eruption after they retreated into the bedroom. Their remains were found using an ingenious technique of pouring plaster into the void left by the decomposed bed frame that they had been sheltering beneath.

HISTORICAL RECORDS
Pompeii was no Atlantis*. Details of the tragedy were recorded by those who observed and survived the eruption.

Seventeen-year-old Pliny the Younger was visiting the town of Misenum with his family at the time and was across the Bay of Naples during the eruption.

His letters detailing the travels of his uncle have survived through the centuries. Pliny the Elder, a naval commander, was killed by poisonous 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 stayed too long, or decided to take shelter instead of evacuate.

There were warning signs, but these may not have been understood.

The House of Phrixus and Helle is alongside a larger villa known by archaeologists as 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 these building works are evidence that the region had been hit by a series of damaging earthquakes in the months before Vesuvius erupted.

A NEW THREAT
The excavation of the House of Phrixus and Helle and the House of Leda has been part of a recent emergency archaeological effort to uncover and preserve the buried neighbourhood of about 1070 Roman homes made up of 13,000 rooms. Moisture has been seeping through the volcanic rock from nearby illegal housing developments, which has been eating away at the ancient remains.

So far, about two-thirds of Pompeii have been excavated.

WATCH THE VIDEO

POLL

GLOSSARY

• pumice stones: volcanic rock
• Pompeii: an ancient Roman city that remained remarkable well preserved after it was buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD
• Mount Vesuvius: a volcano in Campania, Italy that is about 1,281m high. Vesuvius has erupted many times since 79AD and is the only volcano on mainland Europe to have erupted within the last century
• opulence: great wealth and luxury
• frescoes: mural paintings done with watercolour on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling which dry as the plaster dries
• mythological: relating to myths, historical stories related to a particular culture that aren’t based on facts
• minor goddess: goddesses that weren’t as important as the major goddesses in Roman mythology
• sacrificed: killed or given up to the gods and goddesses
• golden fleece: a mythical fleece made from pure gold that represents royal power
• socially active: important in running society
• Atlantis: a legendary lost island described by ancient philosopher Plato, which is said to have been a rich civilisation that disappeared after being swallowed up by the sea but is most likely to be a mere legend
• pyroclastic fumes: gases emitted during volcanic eruptions that are both toxic and fatally hot

EXTRA READING
Kids’ drawings found in Pompeii
Slave room found at Pompeii
Exploring the lost city of Pompeii

QUICK QUIZ
1. When did Mount Vesuvius erupt?
2. How many people were thought to have lived in Pompeii?
3. How did Pliny the Elder die?
4. What types of artwork were uncovered at the House of Phrixus and Helle?
5. How much of Pompeii has been uncovered so far?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Pompeii eruption
Complete a Y chart detailing what the young people of Pompeii would have seen, heard and how they would have been feeling the day Mount Vesuvius erupted all those years ago.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, History, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Would you like to be living near Mount Vesuvius in today’s world? What technology would help prevent this type of disaster happening again to residents who live in this part of Italy?

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, History, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Wow word recycle
There are plenty of wow words (ambitious pieces of vocabulary) being used in the article. Some are in the glossary, but there might be extra ones from the article that you think are exceptional as well.

Identify all the words in the article that you think are not common words, and particularly good choices for the writer to have chosen.

Select three words you have highlighted to recycle into your own sentences.

If any of the words you identified are not in the glossary, write up your own glossary for them.

Extension
Find a bland sentence from the article to up-level. Can you add more detail and description? Can you replace any base words with more specific synonyms?

Down-level for a younger audience. Find a sentence in the article that is high level. Now rewrite it for a younger audience so they can understand the words without using the glossary.