Pompeii After Vesuvius: New Archaeological Evidence Reveals Centuries of Reoccupation!
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, it buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under layers of ash and pumice, freezing it in time. But recent archaeological discoveries reveal that Pompeii was not simply lost to history at that moment. In fact, the city was reoccupied for several centuries afterward, though it never quite returned to its former glory.
These new insights come from ongoing excavations in the southern part of Pompeii, known as the Insula Meridionalis. This area stretches from the Villa Imperiale to the Quadriportico dei Teatri and has been part of the extensive “Great Pompeii Project” running from 2012 to 2023. While previous digs aimed to expose the city as it was when destroyed, modern investigations have focused on uncovering the layers that show how life continued long after the eruption.
Before the disaster, Pompeii was home to about 20,000 people. Archaeologists estimate that between 15 and 20 per cent of them died during the eruption, mostly from the extreme heat. Some survivors, unable to resettle elsewhere, returned to the ruined city. Later, newcomers, often from lower social classes, arrived, drawn by the chance to occupy abandoned homes or scavenge valuables buried beneath the ash.
Photo Credit: ElfQrin / CC BY-SA 4.0
Excavations suggest that early returnees lived in the upper floors of buildings protruding above the ash, while the lower floors, buried and inaccessible, were converted into storage cellars. Large warehouse spaces were divided into smaller rooms, ovens were installed for baking bread, and staircases were built to reach windows above the ash layer. Evidence of food production, such as millstones and ovens in repurposed cisterns, points to a modest, subsistence lifestyle.
Among the finds were pottery, coins spanning multiple emperors, and oil lamps dating as late as the fifth century CE, some bearing the Chi-Rho Christian symbol. These artefacts mark two main phases of reoccupation: the first from the late first to early third centuries CE, and the second from the fourth to mid-fifth century. One particularly touching discovery was the burial of a newborn child dating to between 100 and 200 CE.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, explains that earlier studies often overlooked these signs of post-eruption life. The dramatic destruction of 79 CE has so dominated the city’s story that later chapters were largely ignored, creating what he calls an “archaeological unconscious.”
Ancient writers like Suetonius and Cassius Dio recorded that Emperor Titus appointed two former consuls to oversee Pompeii’s rebuilding, funding the effort with estates belonging to victims without heirs. However, despite this official backing, Pompeii never fully regained its infrastructure or vitality as a bustling Roman city.
The city’s final abandonment came with another eruption in 472 CE, just before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Today, around a third of Pompeii’s 22-hectare UNESCO World Heritage site remains unexcavated beneath volcanic material. These recent discoveries add a vital new dimension to Pompeii’s story, a tale not just of destruction, but of resilience and survival amid the ruins.