The article discusses the excavation of a house called the 'House of Elle and Frisso' in Pompeii, where archaeologists uncovered evidence of a family’s desperate attempt to survive the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The family wedged a bed against their bedroom door to block the entrance, but they ultimately perished in the catastrophe. The discovery highlights not only the artistry of Pompeii but also the fragility of life. Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the park's director, emphasizes that these excavations confront visitors with both beauty and the tragic reality of the volcanic disaster.
"Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives," said the Director of the Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
"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 of which we made a cast."
"They didn't make it," Mr Zuchtriegel explained. "In the end the pyroclastic flow arrived, a violent flow of very hot ash that filled here, as elsewhere, every room..."
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