Archaeologists found the tortoise’s remains half a metre under the clay floor of a shop in the central Via dell’Abbondanza.
A joint excavation is being carried out in that area by the Oriental University of Naples, Berlin’s Freie Universitat and Oxford University.
It is theorised that the tortoise found its way into a building, and “sought a sheltered corner to dig a nest and lay its egg”.
Anthropologist Valeria Amoretti believes that the tortoise’s actions “may have caused its death”, as the time taken to attempt to lay its egg cost the animal its life.
The tortoise’s shell is almost unscathed, along with its head, tail and one of its feet.
“This lets us reflect on Pompeii in this phase after the earthquake but before the eruption,” Dr Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Pompeii archaeological site, said.
“When many homes were being rebuilt, the whole city was a construction site, and evidently some spaces were so unused that wild animals could roam, enter and try to lay their eggs.”
Though the tortoise may have been a household pet, archaeologists currently believe that the animal was wild.
After removing the remains from the site, researchers will study them in a lab.
