POMPEI, Italy (AP) — Plaster casts of more than 20 victims of Pompeii’s catastrophic volcanic eruption were put on permanent display for the first time Thursday.
The models, which scholars call “marks of pain,” dramatically capture the position each resident was in when they died in AD 79. The replicas were made by pouring liquid plaster into the voids left by decomposing bodies in hardened ash.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of Pompeii Archaeological Park, said the curators wanted to “give dignity to these people who died like us – women, children, men – during the eruption, but at the same time make it understandable.” He added that they wanted people to “understand what really happened in Pompeii.”
The technique of making plaster casts, invented by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863, faithfully preserves the victims’ positions, expressions of pain and details of their clothing, making them unique testimonies. It is still used today by teams of scholars conducting research in the Pompeii Archaeological Park.
Pompeii is the only site known to have recovered such evidence, allowing visitors to see destroyed objects as well as replicas of the people who lived and died at the time.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius killed an estimated 2,000 of the city’s residents, with total regional casualties as high as 16,000. Pompeii was covered in volcanic ash and then solidified by pyroclastic flows.
Excavations in Pompeii have uncovered the remains of more than 1,000 victims of the eruption, who were trapped in their homes or shelters, either buried by a rain of pumice and volcanic rock or killed when roofs and walls collapsed under the weight of volcanic debris, which reached heights of about 3 meters (about 10 feet).
These 22 casts were selected as the best preserved remains. Victims were found across the city, from the inner city to the gates and roads leading outside, as residents fled town in search of safety.
“They have a strong emotional impact on visitors and are very moving,” said Silvia Martina Bertsago, an archaeologist at the Pompeii Archaeological Park.
“With the analyzes we can do today with increasingly advanced techniques, we can also learn their age and gender, and whether they have specific diseases or a specific type of diet,” she said.
The exhibition is located in the portico of the Palestra Grande opposite the amphitheater. In addition to an area dedicated to human remains, it also displays finds such as plants and food buried under meters of volcanic ash and lava.
