Archeologists announced on Wednesday that they have found evidences of reoccupation of Pompeii following 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius that left the city in ruins.

Despite the massive destruction, it is believed that some survivors could not afford to relocate and thus returned to their ruins. These returnees were likely joined by others seeking shelters and hoping to uncover valuable artifacts find in the debris.

According to the Archeologists team, the evidence suggests that the reoccupation led to the formation of informal settlement characterised by precarious living conditions, lacking the infrastructure and services typical of Roman city. This settlement endured until the area was completely abandoned in the fifth century.

While some life returned to the upper floors of the old houses, the former ground floors were converted into cellars with ovens and mills.

The director of the site Gabriel Zuchtriegel said, “Thanks to the new excavations, the picture is now clearer: post-79 Pompeii reemerges, more than a city, a precarious and grey agglomeration, a kind of camp, a favela among the still recognisable ruins of the Pompeii that once was”.

Evidence that the site was reoccupied had been detected in the past, but in the rush to access Pompeii’s colourful frescoes and still-intact homes, “the faint traces of the site’s reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation”.