Archaeologists have uncovered a small house in Pompeii filled with elaborate – and sometimes erotic – frescoes, further revealing the ornate way Romans decorated their homes.

Located in the central district of the ancient city, the house is smaller than normal and unusually lacks the open central courtyard – known as an atrium – typical of Roman architecture, the Pompeii Archaeological Park, which oversees the site, said in a statement Thursday .

This change could have occurred because of shifting trends in Roman – and especially Pompeian – society, in the first century AD, archaeologists said.

Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. when its buildings and thousands of inhabitants were buried under layers of ash and pumice. This coating perfectly preserved the city for millennia, making it one of the most important archaeological sites in the world because it offers an unparalleled insight into Roman daily life.

This latest discovery highlights the ornate decorations that wealthy Romans enjoyed in their homes – several frescoes depict mythical scenes and others are decorated with plant and animal motifs on a white background.

A small square painting against a blue-painted wall depicts intercourse between a satyr and a nymph, while another depicts Hippolytus, son of the mythical Greek king Theseus, and his stepmother Phaedra who fell in love with him before killing himself when he rejected her in disgust.

One fresco likely depicts the Judgment of Paris, although it has been damaged by previous excavations, and another depicts Venus, the goddess of love, and Adonis, her mortal lover.

Erotic and elaborate frescoes like this have been discovered in Pompeii before. A house covered in erotic frescoes reopened to the public in January 2023 after being closed for 20 years while another fresco depicts an erotic scene from Greek myth”Leda and the Swan” was revealed in 2018.

Elsewhere in this newly excavated house, the last ritual sacrifices left before the eruption still remain at the household shrine, known as a lararium.

“We have archaeologists, restorers, archaeobotanists here to understand exactly how the ritual of the final sacrifice was performed before the eruption,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the park’s director, said in a statement. “There are still the burnt remains of this ritual, there is the knife that was used.”

This excavation, Zuchtriegel added, “does under the public eye” who can access the site on suspended walkways and see archaeologists at work.