Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have digitally reconstructed a house from Pompeii, Italy, giving us an unprecedented look into what life was like before the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Experts have been documenting Pompeii’s ruins since 1980, and the research has expanded to include field work, during which experts scan the ruins, effectively doing digital archaeology. Three-dimensional models of parts of the ancient city have been completed, with the most detailed being the impressive home of Caecilius Iucundus.
These 3-D renderings were based on painstaking on-site work. Researchers cleaned entire buildings, swept floor surfaces, and studied what remains of the city’s water and sewer systems. Pompeii had an aqueduct, and an uncovered fountain revealed taps that were still on at the moment Mount Vesuvius erupted.
These discoveries and more fed into the digital reconstructions available now, according to Lund University digital archaeologist Nicoló Dell’Unto, who says that “by combining new technology with more traditional methods, we can describe Pompeii in greater detail and more accurately than was previously possible.”
The research behind these reconstructions was published in Scires Italy, and you can watch a video tour of Iucundus’ house below.
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