Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in ash and volcanic debris in 79 C.E., freezing the city in time, and historians think around 2,000 people died there. The famous figures of victims are not statues and not bodies. What they are is a consequence of what happened to the bodies over the centuries that followed.
Empty space, filled in. The bodies were trapped by ash and decomposed over thousands of years, leaving behind; the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli developed the technique of pouring liquid plaster into them in 1863. The hardened imprints reproduce not only but facial expressions, and researchers have made more than 100 casts.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E. and covered Pompeii in thick layers of ash and volcanic debris, with destroyed in the same event. Falling pumice and rock trapped many residents in their homes and shelters, roofs collapsed under the weight, and scientists think many victims died immediately or within minutes.
The exist because of what came next. The bodies were held in place by the debris and decomposed over thousands of years, leaving cavities in the hardened ash, and in 1863 Giuseppe Fiorelli developed the technique of pouring liquid plaster into them.
What comes out is unusually faithful. The hardened imprints reproduce not only the deceased’s final positions but also their facial expressions, with some figures lying down, others huddled or sitting, and one that appears to have been a small child.
Twenty-two of the more than 100 casts made over the years are now on permanent display at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. They sit alongside plants and animals preserved by the eruption, including a turtle shell and part of a tree, and curators describe the aim as giving dignity to people who were like us.
wat. The figure is the shape of an absence, poured full.
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The technique turned a void into the most direct record we have of how people died in an ancient disaster.
How do we know?
Smithsonian Magazine reports on the permanent exhibition at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, which displays 22 of the best-preserved casts alongside preserved plants and animals.
What is still unknown
A cast records a posture, and the analyses of age, sex, disease and diet come from what survives inside it.
Learn something?
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