New Digging at Pompeii Reveals How the Middle Class Lived in 79 AD

The House of the Lararium is a middle class residence located on the northern side of Pompeii.

Mount Vesuvius, an eruption that baked and suffocated its cosmopolitan habitants in superheated pyroclastic flows, was the cause of Pompeii's destruction. The eruption covered the surrounding area in the Bay of Naples in ash, freezing in place victims and scenes of daily life at Pompeii.

What residents ate, how they lived, and how they died are just some of the things that can be found in the two cities.

A 54-acre swath of the city's northern edge has only recently been the site of thorough excavations. A thermopolium, or Roman snack bar, a headless skeleton pinned under a big rock, and a charcoal graffito indicate that Vesuvius eruption occurred later than previously thought.

Massimo Osanna, Italy's director general of museums, said in a Pompeii release, "Pompeii is an ongoing discovery that continues to inspire awe."

The recently excavated house is named for a group of deities known as lares. The building has a niche in one wall that was dedicated to the lares, and the surrounding walls are decorated with painted murals depicting plants, birds, and hunting scenes.

According to the director of Pompeii's archaeological park, the house probably belonged to members of Pompeii's middle class. Zuchtriegel said that there was an ample portion of the population that struggled with their social status and for whom daily bread was anything but a given. During political crises and food shortages, a vulnerable class is ambitious about climbing the social ladder.

Archeologists found two additional rooms on the second floor of the house last year after the excavation of the site expanded.

The excavated rooms had chests and cabinets filled with items from the Roman empire. A decorated incense burner in the shape of a cradle, an oil lamp depicting the Greek god Zeus transforming into an eagle, and the remains of a bed frame are all less common.

The bed was made out of a piece of fabric stretched over rope nets.

Plates still sat on a three-legged table in one of the rooms despite several beams and plank from the ceiling collapsing onto a chest.