The terrace is artificial and was built with debris from the major earthquake that struck Akrotiri in the mid-seventeenth century BCE. The space remained unoccupied and proved handy in the aftermath of the last earthquake to strike the town before the volcanic eruption. The salvage teams that worked among the ruins salvaged some beds and placed them temporarily on the terrace, where they were abandoned when everyone fled the eruption. The beds were covered in pumice and disintegrated gradually, leaving only their imprint. The archaeologists were able to make plaster casts but because the beds were buried in pumice the negative is not as detailed as that of pieces of furniture that were buried in volcanic ash.