A group of international archaeologists has discovered four human skeletons and gold coins in the ruins of an ancient shop on the outskirts of Pompeii.
Officials, who announced the discovery on Friday, said that the skeletons belong to young people including an adolescent girl who died at the back of the ancient shop when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
Mount Vesuvius in the Gulf of Naples, Italy erupted in A.D. 79 and destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Because these areas were buried quickly by the volcanic ash, they provide a well-preserved snapshot of life in ancient Roman settlements.
In 1752, 2,000-year-old papyrus scrolls that were charred by the ancient volcanic catastrophe were found in a villa believed to have been the home of Julius Caesar's father in law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. Using X-ray tomography, researchers hope that the secrets of ancient literature that are hidden in the scrolls can be unveiled.
In the latest find, Italian and French archaeologists also found three gold coins and a pendant of a necklace scattered among the remains. They also found an oven in the workshop, which could have been used to make bronze objects.
The excavation of the ancient shop as well as that of another one near a necropolis in the port area of Herculaneum began in May.
Based on evidences, officials said that the shop had likely been ransacked by clandestine diggers following the eruption of the volcano to hunt for treasures that were buried under the ashes. The coins and the gold-leaf-foil flower-shaped pendant appear to have escaped the eyes of those who pillaged the shop.
Vesuvius, the only volcano on the European mainland that have erupted within the last century, is known for its A.D. 79 eruption.
Accounts of the ancient disaster were recorded by Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator and poet, who watched the volcanic eruption from afar. He interviewed those who survived and relayed the details of the events in a letter to his friend Tacitus.
Pompeii is believed to be buried under 4 to 17 feet of ash and pumice. In 1748, explorers found that the volcanic ash acted as a preservative, resulting in the city to be frozen in time. Many of the ancient settlement's buildings and even skeletons of those who were buried alive during the catastrophic eruption were found intact.
Many years after the historic volcanic eruption, much of Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum, which was buried deeper in ashes, is still to be excavated.
