It contained two beds, only one of which had a mattress, two small cabinets and a series of urns and ceramic containers, in which the remains of two mice and a rat were found.

"These details once again underline the conditions of precarity and poor hygiene in which the lower echelons of society lived during that time," the culture ministry said in its statement.

Materials such as furniture and fabric, covered by the devastating blast of rock fragments, gas, and ash from Vesuvius, decomposed over the years, leaving a void in the debris.

When filled with plaster, this void reveals the original shape and contours of the long gone material, including the outline of a crumpled blanket left on the bed netting.