Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• Researchers investigating the well-known House of Thiasus in Pompeii became fascinated with an unconnected stone staircase.
• A digital architectural reconstruction (based on features still present at the villa paired with historical records) has researchers believing a “lost Pompeii” existed with towers atop villas.
• The towers, some possibly 40 feet tall, were perched on the homes of the cultural elite with views of the city and the Bay of Naples.

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A monumental staircase at Pompeii’s House of Thiasus villa seemingly led nowhere. That nowhere turned into something special when researchers looked up. They’ve since determined that a “lost Pompeii” could once be found in now-destroyed towers rising above the ancient city’s most elite villas.

“Lost Pompeii” consists of the upper floors of buildings which are essential to understanding life in the ancient city,” Gabriel Zuchtriegal, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, said in a statement. A research team employed digital archaeology to create models of villas of the super-rich, showing that Pompeii’s largest villas likely once had towers, true symbols of power and wealth.

The researchers from Berlin’s Humboldt University and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii were most fascinated by the House of Thiasus, known for its banquet hall lined with frescoes. The villa, though, also features a monstrous staircase that seemingly leads nowhere. What if, instead of focusing on the ground floor, the researchers looked up?

In a new article on the reconstructions of the tower of the House of Thiasus published in the E-journal Scavi di Pompei, researchers resurrected a lost Pompeii using digital archaeology to approximate what could have been present before the devastating Mount Vesuvius volcano of 79 C.E. destroyed the city.

The team believes the onslaught of ash buried and preserved the buildings’ lowest levels but brought destruction to the upper floors.

By scanning existing structures, the team designed digital replicas. Using clues, such as unconnected staircases and cut-off support beams, the team digitally designed architectural elements they believe previously existed. The team posits that the staircase led to a tower so that the wealthy could view the city and the Bay of Naples, along with the night sky.

The researchers believe the House of Thiasus could have featured a 40-foot-tall tower consisting of multiple stories. “The interior of the lower part was simple in its furnishing,” the researchers wrote, according to translation. “This contrasted by the monumental external staircase that leads to the upper floor, suggesting a living space of a more elegant and representative character.”

The journal features the digital architecture, which utilizes 3D modeling to reconstruct what could have been in place. “In particular, ‘lost Pompeii’ consists of the upper floors of buildings which are essential to understanding life in the ancient city,” the researchers wrote. “By putting together the data in the form of a 3D digital model, we can develop hypothetical reconstructions that help us to understand the experience, the spaces, and the society of the time.”

In an ancient city famous for what survived the horrific volcanic eruption, this digital approach demonstrates one way archaeologists can focus instead on what does not remain in the aftermath. “Archaeological research at Pompeii is extremely complex,” Zuchtriegal said. “As well as research carried out in the field with excavations that reveal well-preserved contexts providing insights into life in antiquity and new stories about the tragic eruption, another approach involves non-invasive research, based on studies and hypothetical reconstructions of what has not been preserved, but which adds to our knowledge of the site.”

Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.