Overview

• The House of Elle and Frisso, unearthed in Pompeii, contained a bedroom where a bed was wedged against the door in a failed attempt to block volcanic debris.
• Excavations revealed the remains of at least four individuals, including a child, alongside personal artifacts such as a bronze amulet, or bulla, likely worn by the child.
• Archaeologists created a plaster cast of the wooden bed frame used in the barricade by identifying its shape in solidified ash deposits.
• Experts believe lapilli, small volcanic rock fragments, entered through an atrium opening, providing the family with a brief warning before the catastrophic pyroclastic flow struck.
• The house, named after a mythological fresco of Phrixus and Helle, also showed signs of ongoing renovations at the time of the eruption, with removed thresholds and sparse decoration in some areas.