For almost two millennia, the piles of wood lay undisturbed and largely intact under layers of hardened volcanic material. Now, after three years of painstaking work, archaeologists at Herculaneum have not only excavated and preserved the pieces, but worked out how they fitted together, achieving the first-ever full reconstruction of the timberwork of a Roman roof.

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What his archaeologists uncovered, however, was something altogether more comprehensive – almost 250 pieces, which they were able to piece together. "It's the first-ever full reconstruction of the timberwork of a Roman roof," said Wallace-Hadrill.

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From the way in which the pieces lay his team was able to establish that the roof of the House of the Telephus Relief had been swept off by the pyroclastic surge, turned upside down and then smashed on to the beach. The timberwork was embedded in wet sand, which can preserve wood for centuries, and was then smothered with what soon became an air-tight layer of rock – a freak combination of circumstances that has produced a unique result.

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Until now it had been thought the earliest wooden coffered ceilings were made in France in the early Renaissance. But the panels retrieved from the beach at Herculaneum prove otherwise. "Renaissance architects reinvented the concept, unaware the Romans got there first," said Camardo.

House of the Telephus Relief: raising the roof on Roman real estate