I think I found the source paper (written in Itallian):
https://pompeiisites.org/e-journal-degli-scavi-di-pompei/la-...
So the archaeologists think that, after the destruction of 79 A.D., some survivors returned to Pompeii and found their homes half-buried in ash. They tried recover their belongings by digging underground, and some apparently attempted to rebuild their lives in their old homes, because they had nowhere else to go.
While their efforts ultimately proved to be futile, they did leave some historical artifacts behind (e.g. bread oven entirely made of salvaged materials), and the archaeologists recently unearthed them.
It’s not hard to imagine people mining the ruins for valuables.
We are doing it right now :).
For those interested, there's a new set of hour-long videos on the PBS site that has more about the recent Pompeii excavations.
There are four so far. Not sure if there will be more: https://www.pbs.org/show/pompeii-the-new-dig/
Volcanic ash is highly productive and at the very least you would think latifundia would be there. If opportunistically you can find an old water cistern and turn it into an oven, why not?
Modern day Indonesian and Philippines and Pac rim Island farmers don't stay away from volcanoes any longer than they have to. Mud flows different. Ash? That's plantable. And tuff forms, you can build with it.
I find this surprising, because my impression was that complex biology requires pioneer species to spend some time making "fresh" geology from the earth inhabitable first if there isn't already an established ecosystem.
Why is volcanic ash so productive? Is it the result of coincidence? Adaptation? Some resource cycle?
IIRC the first explosion of 79 AD didn't bury the Pompeii completely. (It did bury Herculaneum, and much deeper so.) It was another explosion around the time of collapse of the Western Roman Empire that finished the job and hid the remaining structures from human view.
The 79 eruption buried the first floor. Upper floors (if they existed) were still visible. Over time the upper floors were demolished to scavenge the stones to build other villages in the area. So when the site was "rediscovered " in modern times it was the first floor that could be excavated.
looters would dig holes at known rich villas?
How would anyone be able to afford anything if all their possessions were under hardened magma
It wasn’t magma, it was 4-6m of ash and pumice.
Romans were known to take poor people and make them slaves, that's one solution