Italian and French archaeologists have discovered four skeletons and gold coins in the ruins of an ancient shop on the outskirts ofPompeii, officials said Friday.

The skeletons are those of young people, including an adolescent girl, who perished in the back of the shop near the ancient Roman town when Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered it in ash in 79, said a statement from the area office of the famous archaeological site near Naples.

Three gold coins and a necklace's pendant were scattered among the bones. In the workshop was an oven which archaeologists think might have been used to make bronze objects.

The excavation of that and a second ancient shop started in May near a necropolis in the Herculaneum port area. Archaeologists are puzzling over what kind of business the second shop did. It features a circular well accessible by a spiral staircase and dug out of the terrain.

Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum were ancient Roman towns. Much of the area is still to be excavated, including of Herculaneum, which was buried deeper, beneath as much as 80 feet (24 meters) of ash.

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