ROME, ITALY—ANSA reports that the bones of at least five people have been unearthed in a bedroom of the so-called “Garden House” at Pompeii. Massimo Osanna, director of Pompeii Archaeological Park, said the remains are thought to have belonged to two women and three children who sought refuge in an inner room of the building when volcanic rocks began to fall during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. (An inscription written in charcoal on the wall of this house has recently called the exact day of the eruption into question.) The building’s roof eventually collapsed in a pyroclastic current. Researchers have also detected tunnels at the site, which are thought to have been dug before official research began at Pompeii in 1748. The diggers left holes in the home’s walls and disrupted the human remains. To read about the archaeology of gardens at Pompeii, click here.
Skeletal Remains Uncovered in Pompeii
News October 24, 2018
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2024
Pompeian Politics
Letter from Vesuvius September/October 2023
Digging on the Dark Side of the Volcano
Survivors of the infamous disaster rebuilt their lives on the ashes of the A.D. 79 eruption
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2021
More Vesuvius Victims
-
Features September/October 2018
Shipping Stone
A wreck off the Sicilian coast offers a rare look into the world of Byzantine commerce
(Courtesy Marzamemi Maritime Heritage Project) -
Letter from Brooklyn September/October 2018
New York City's Dirtiest Beach
Long-lost clues to the lives of forgotten New Yorkers are emerging from the sands at Dead Horse Bay
(Courtesy Jason Urbanus) -
Artifacts September/October 2018
Base of a Qingbai-Glazed Molded Box
(© The Field Museum, cat. no. 344404. Photographer Gedi Jakovickas) -
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2018
Ice Age Necropolis
(Archives of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio della Liguria - Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage)