Pompeii Exhibition is at the ROM until January 3rd!
When we hear "Pompeii" we automatically think about this! Have you ever wonderered what it is we are actually looking at? For the Pompeii Exhibition presented at the ROM until January 3rd, 2016, they've created a small display to explain it to us.
Some 1150 people died during Mount Vesuvious' eruption over Pompeii in Year 79. Of these, 394 were found buried beneath layers of pumice, forming a porous shell around their body.
Over time, the soft tissues decayed, leaving an empty space where the bodies lied, with some bones.
Excavators found many hollow pockets in the ash. In 1864, one of them, Giuseppe Fiorelli, instructed the diggers to pour plaster into the hole, leaving it to harden.
They were then instructed to chip off the hardened ash around the plaster, which had created a perfect cast of the body at the time of death.
The body casts are too precious to travel, so what we see at the ROM are copies of the casts, either molded out of the original plaster casts or, lately, reproduced in resine from a 3D printer!
Related posts:
9 proofs that things haven't changed much in 2,000 years!
What you will love vs what your kids will love about Pompeii's exhibition 1
What you will love vs what your kids will love about Pompeii's exhibition 2
Behind the scene of a family media launch at the ROM
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