The latest research suggests that people returned to live among the ruins of Pompeii after the ancient Roman city was destroyed by a volcanic eruption.
Archaeologists believe that some of the survivors, who were unable to start life elsewhere, returned to Pompeii.
Perhaps they were joined by others who were looking for a place to settle.
Pompeii was home to more than 20.000 people before Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, burying and preserving much of the city, before it was rediscovered in the 16th century.
It has previously been assumed that the survivors returned, and archaeologists now say that the theory appears to be confirmed by new research.
"Thanks to new excavations, the picture is clearer: Pompeii is coming back to life after 79 AD."
"Less than a city, more like a kind of camp, a favela among the still recognizable ruins," said site director Gabriel Zuhtrigel.
Archaeologists said the informal settlement survived until the 5th century.
The new findings suggest that people lived without the infrastructure and services typical of a Roman city, and that the ruins offered the opportunity to find valuable objects, the researchers said.
It is assumed that people lived on the upper floors of the houses above the ash, while the lower floors were converted into basements.
The destruction of the city "monopolised memory," Gabriel Zuhtrigel writes, and in the rush to retrieve Pompeii's well-preserved artifacts, "faint traces of re-occupation of the site were literally removed and often erased without any documentation."
The site is now a world-famous tourist attraction and provides an insight into Roman life.
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