Pompeii never ceases to surprise. The archaeological site continues to reveal new discoveries and hidden treasures that allow us to better know life in antiquity. The archaeologists who work in the excavations have found that one of the southern neighborhoods of the old city razed by Vesubio in the year 79 repopulated again after the catastrophe. Experts have found traces of weight to sustain this theory that, as they explain, has always remained, almost unnoticed, in the “archaeological unconscious.”
For a long time, it was known that the reoccupation after the eruption of the volcano had been a fact, but the news had always been in the background and the evidence of the existence of that second Pompeii had been eliminated to reach the remains of the first, which was buried by tons of ashes and volcanic material and that has been the subject of the vast majority of archeology studies.
Scientists have now explained that the works to ensure the stability of the excavations in that part of the city, known as the southern insula, have brought to light a series of “great wealth” data on the repopulation of the destroyed city. And they have proposed to highlight the fact that life returned to Pompeii after the fateful eruption and deepen what happened later. “The data shows that life continued after the catastrophe, but in previous excavations they have often been ignored: it is a forgotten story that must be recovered,” says those responsible for the Pompeii archaeological park in a statement.
The experts clarify that the zero zone, covered by the ashes and full of the bodies of the victims who died in the act in the explosion, never once again became a real city, but rather it was a “precarious camp, something improvised” that was occupied until the 5th century, when it was definitively abandoned.
The director of the Archaeological Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, co -author of the scientific article on the new findings, has revealed that many people who had no other possibilities tried to rebuild their lives about the ruins of the devastated city. To the former inhabitants, newcomers were probably added, from other places, without home, which tried to occupy the devastated area in search of a place to establish themselves and hoping to find objects of value to sell.
“Many people died and many others went to live elsewhere, but not everyone could allow you to live elsewhere and there were people who returned. They returned to a place that was a desert and began to dig to recover precious materials such as the marbles to trade. They probably also found the remains of the victims who had been trapped under the ashes. And they began to live there,” Zuchtriegel said.
And he explained that the magnitude of the discoveries of ancient Pompeii is such that it has monopolized all the attention: “The transcendental episode of the destruction of the city in the year 79 has monopolized the memory.” Zuchtriegel has also illustrated how the second Pompeii had been forgotten so far: “In the enthusiasm to reach the levels of 79, with wonderfully preserved frescoes and decorations still intact, the weak traces of the reoccupation of the deposit were literally eliminated and, often, sweeps without any documentation. Thanks to the new excavations, the panorama now becomes clearer 79, more than a city, a precarious and disorganized settlement, a ‘favela’ between the still recognizable ruins of the Pompeii it was ”.
This hypothesis has already been on the table in the past, but now it seems to be confirmed. The experts point out that they have found the traces of people who returned to the place of the disaster and that, at a given time, they began to live permanently among the ruins of the upper floors that still emerged among the ashes. Thus, life returned to the old houses and structures, but the spaces that before the eruption were the ground floor of the houses had been buried and became the second pompeii into basements and caves, where stoves, ovens and mills were installed.
At first it was lived in a kind of ashes desert, but soon the vegetation made its way again. “In the furnaces, bread was made, indicating that crops had been recovered, that the desert had been transformed again into agricultural terrain,” says Zuchtriegel.
Experts estimate that Pompeii had at least 20,000 inhabitants in 79, but the percentage of people who lost their lives during the eruption is still the object of debate in the scientific community. Since the beginning of the excavations, in 1748, approximately 1,300 victims have been found. With two thirds excavated from the old city in sight, the figure might seem relatively low, they point out. “Many others could have lost their lives outside the urban center, while trying to get away from the epicenter of the catastrophe. There were certainly survivors, as inscriptions suggest with Pompeian names from other Campania centers. But, obviously, not everyone had the means to start a new life elsewhere,” describe the archaeologists.
In the second pompeya the situation was “somewhat improvised not to say anarchic,” as scholars indicate. This was probably the reason why Emperor Tito sent two former consuls to the old city as “Curate Campania “that is, responsible for the recovery of the area after the devastating eruption. In addition to promoting the re -foundation of Pompeya and Herculano, which had been destroyed by the fury of Vesuvio, they had the task of managing the assets of those who had died without heirs to cover the reconstruction of damaged cities.
But the attempted recast was a failure and the place was never the vital center that had been before the eruption. Rather, judging by archaeological data, it must be a camp where people lived in precarious conditions and without the typical infrastructure and services of a Roman city.
This did not prevent this form of settlement from extending until late antiquity, that is, until the 5th century. Experts consider that the area was definitely abandoned around the year 472, coinciding with another devastating outbreak of Vesuvio, known as the eruption of Pollena.
The director of the Pompeya Archaological Park believes that this finding should open the door to a debate about the discipline itself: “Archaeologists, in these cases, we feel as psychologists of the memory buried on earth: we bring to light the eliminated parts of the story, and this phenomenon should lead us to a broader reflection on the archaeological unconscious, especially what is eliminated, it is eliminated, it is eliminated or the Shadow of other seemingly more important things. ”