When Mount Vesuvius violently erupted on the morning of August 24, AD 79, the residents of Pompeii were caught off guard. Now, a chilling new find sheds light on one family’s desperate attempt to survive the catastrophe.
Archaeologists working with Pompeii Archaeological Park have unearthed the remains of a home along Via del Vesuvio, now referred to as the ‘House of Elle and Frisso.’ Within this modest dwelling, they discovered poignant evidence of the inhabitants’ final actions as they tried to shield themselves from the oncoming disaster. A bed had been pushed against the bedroom door, likely in an effort to protect the room’s occupants from the erupting volcano’s wrath.
Inside, the skeletal remains of at least four people were found, including most tragically that of a young child.
“Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives,” said Park Director Gabriel Zuchtriegel in an interview with the Daily Mail. “In this small, wonderfully decorated house we found traces of the inhabitants who tried to save themselves, blocking the entrance to a small room with a bed of which we made a cast.”
Discovered in 2018, the House of Elle and Frisso takes its name from a mythological painting located within one of its chambers. Excavations revealed a large foyer that opened into a central atrium, a sleeping quarter, and a formal dining area.
Experts theorize that lapilli—tiny volcanic rock fragments expelled during the early stages of the eruption—fell through the atrium’s roof opening. Originally designed to let rainwater in, this architectural feature may have unwittingly served as an early warning system, alerting the residents to the imminent danger. That early alert appears to have driven the family to barricade themselves in the bedroom using the bed as a shield. But they were doomed from the start.
“They didn’t make it,” Zuchtriegel explained. “In the end the pyroclastic flow arrived, a violent flow of very hot ash that filled here, as elsewhere, every room. The seismic shocks had already caused many buildings to collapse. An inferno that struck this city on August 24, 79 AD, of which we still find traces today.”
During the dig, archaeologists uncovered not only the human remains but also a bronze amulet known as a ‘bulla,’ believed to have been worn by the child. This amulet marked the passage from childhood to adulthood in ancient Rome, and would have been removed only after the child had reached maturity. In the home’s pantry, the excavation team found a store of amphorae along with a bronze kitchen set, which included a ladle, a single-handled jug, a basket-shaped vase, and a cup shaped like a seashell.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was not merely a local disaster; it obliterated entire towns and resulted in an immense loss of life. Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae were smothered under ash and debris, with Herculaneum engulfed by a thick mudflow. The violent pyroclastic surges that ensued were far more lethal than lava flows and are responsible for the swift loss of life among the city’s residents.
A Roman administrator and poet, Pliny the Younger, documented the eruption from a distance, describing the horror and chaos as panicked citizens fled through darkness while the fiery inferno claimed their lives. His accounts hint at a total death toll exceeding 10,000, an unparalleled catastrophe in the Roman world.
New findings like those from the House of Elle and Frisso continue to offer remarkable insights into life during the Roman Empire, as archaeologists gradually piece together the social and domestic realities of the time. Amidst the ruins, the remnants of Pompeii serve as both a reminder of the destructive forces of nature and a testament to the lives once lived there.