Preserving Pompeii Victims’ Final Moments 2,000 Years Ago
Haunting Casts Preserving Pompeii Victims’ Final Moments 2,000 Years Ago Go on Display in a Solemn New Exhibition
The plaster casts of more than 20 victims of Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 C.E. are now on display in a permanent exhibition at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in Italy.
The casts preserve residents’ final moments before the eruption covered Pompeii in thick layers of ash and volcanic debris, freezing the ancient city in time. Some were lying down, while others were huddled or sitting. One appears to have been a small child.
“We want to tell the story of a tragedy that destroyed a city, the biggest natural disaster in antiquity, but also left us with an archaeological and historical treasure,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the park, said at the exhibition’s opening, per the London Times’ Tom Kington…
READ MORE at Smithsonian Magazine.
