Four skeletons, other artifacts recovered during Pompeii dig

Four skeletons, including one belonging to an adolescent female, and a cache of gold coins have been recovered from the ruins of an ancient shop on the outskirts of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city destroyed following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, reports indicate.

According to the Associated Press, a team of Italian and French archaeologists discovered bones in the back of the shop belonging to four young victims killed after the volcano erupted, covering the shop and the entire city with an estimated 13 to 20 feet (4 to 6 meters) of ash and pumice.

Officials from the local office of the Pompeii site, which is located near Naples in the Campania region of Italy, announced the discovery on Friday. They also added that three gold coins and the flower-shaped pendant of a necklace were found among the bones in the shop, which also housed an over likely used to create bronze objects, the wire service noted.

The archaeologists added that there is evidence that looters had ransacked the shop following the eruption, likely hunting for treasured buried beneath the volcanic ash. Fortunately, it appears that the coins and the pendant had avoided detection, allowing for their recovery this week.

Excavations continue at workshop, nearby second site

Archaeolgists from l’Ecole française de Rome (The French School at Rome), le Centre Jean Bérard, and le Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) are leading the expedition, according to Forbes, and have released images of both the coins and the remains, which they called important for learning more about the life and death of the residents of Pompeii.

Excavations on the workshop began last month, as researchers began searching through the site and a second ancient shop located near a necropolis in the Herculaneum port area, the AP said. It is unknown at this point what kind of business was conducted at the second site, which features a circular well that was dug out of the terrain and can be reached using a spiral staircase.

Work at the Pompeii site also revealed the tomb of what is believed to be an adult male lying on his back, with at least six funerary vases that had been painted black. The tomb has been dated to the fourth century BC and “adds to the rare funerary testimony of the pre-Roman age,” members of the excavation team said in a statement, according to the AP.

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Image credit: Pompeii Archeological Site Press Office/ AP Photos

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