Mount Vesuvius, a stratovolcano in modern-day Italy, erupted in 79 AD in one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions ever sprawling a cloud of superheated tephra and gases to a height of 21 miles. This natural disaster ejected molten rock, pulverised pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tonnes per second, obliterating Roman settlements and burying thousands under the burning rubble. More than 2,000 years on, experts are still piecing together the remains, including those found in what has come to be known as “Room 10”.
This house was discovered in the Eighties with a group of bodies plastered in jewellery, alongside another that appeared to be completely stripped of their possessions, Channel 5’s “Ancient Mysteries” series revealed.
The narrator said in October: “Experts are examining a 2,000-year-old crime scene in the city, a basement full of bodies.
“But, even after decades of excavation, mysteries are still emerging from the ashes.
“The most puzzling scene is inside the basement, where the bodies of two different groups of people were discovered.
Experts were puzzled by the discovery in Pompeii (Image: GETTY/AMAZOn)
Room 10 has become famous among researchers (Image: AMAZON)
The most puzzling scene is inside the basement
“Those at the back of the room had almost no possessions between them.
“But the group closest to the door were laden down with riches.”
Archaeologist Dr Kristina Killgrove explained her first thoughts on the find.
She said: “There were a lot of coins, a lot of jewellery and they didn’t find as many artefacts with the second group.
“This had led some to suggest that maybe these were two different social classes.’
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Many bodies were discovered (Image: AMAZON)
The bizarre division of wealth has led some archaeologist to argue that a crime was committed just moments before the disaster.
Dr Giuseppe Scarpati said: “Some of the people who took refuge in Room 10 could have been thieves or looters.”
Archaeologists believe they may have solved the mystery, after finding a safe which could have been ransacked when disaster struck.
Dr Killgrove added: “archaeologists found a very large, strong box that they think belonged to the owner of this large commercial area and it’s possible that person was found in Room 10 as one of the skeletons.”
Explaining the features of the box, the narrator continued: “This ornate strongbox was the Roman answer to the state-of-the-art home security system.
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Some of the bodies had expensive jewellery on them (Image: AMAZON)
Scientists have analysed the artefacts (Image: AMAZON)
“It’s a clear indication of the lengths the wealthy were going to in order to protect their valuables.
“Following a painstaking restoration, the exquisite detailing of the ancient safe can, at last, be revealed.
“The highly-prized item featured a four-stage locking mechanism to protect any riches inside.
“It was so well made, it took a full-scale natural disaster to breach its defence.
“But evidence from Pompeii suggests that in the lead-up to the devastating eruption, crime was rampant across the city.
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in the first century, it released 100,000 times more thermal energy than the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
More than 1,000 people died in the eruption, but exact numbers are unknown.
Vesuvius has erupted many times since, with the last coming in 1944, making it the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last 100 years.
Today, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of three million people living nearby.