Huge archaeology breakthrough with new Pompeii discovery after volcano killed thousands

New evidence has led archaeologists to believe that people may have lived among the ruins of Pompeii following the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which wiped out the entire Roman city.

Pompeii was once home to over 20,000 people until the historic volcano eruption in AD 79 that buried the entire city. Following the eruption, the area was covered in ash, which helped to both preserve and carve out the remains of items and human bodies, until its rediscovery in the 16th century. While thousands are thought to have died in the disaster, there has been speculation that survivors may have returned to the ruins. Now, archaeologists at the site confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that this theory appears to have been proved by new breakthrough research.

The researchers have suggested that a number of survivors couldn't afford to start a new life elsewhere, and so they returned to the site, looking for a place to settle. Their new evidence shows that people lived in the city, without the typical infrastructure, and the ruins provided the chance to discover valuable objects left behind.

Archaeologists dedicated to the site have shared that the informal settlement seemed to have continued until the 5th century. It's thought that these settlers lived in the upper floors of homes, with the ash remaining below them, and lower floors used as cellars.

The site's director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, said: "Thanks to the new excavations, the picture is now clearer: post-79 Pompeii reemerges, less as a city than as a precarious and grey agglomeration, a kind of camp, a favela among the still-recognisable ruins of the Pompeii that once was."

The city's destruction has "monopolised the memory", Mr Zuchtriegel said, and in the rush to reach Pompeii's well-preserved artefacts, "the faint traces of the site's reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation."

This breakthrough comes after an excavation earlier this year found the remains of four people, including a child, whose final moments were spent barricaded in a bedroom.

Their discovery showed that a bed had been pushed against the bedroom door as a last attempt to escape the hot ash flooding their city.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, said in a translated statement: "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."

The findings offered further insight into the lives of the people who were living in the wake of the Mount Vesuvius eruption thousands of years ago.

Zuchtriegel added:"Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives."