In this blog about Pompeii, we'll show you eerie plaster casts made of the shapes of people and animals that were found during excavations. We'll tell you about how those
plaster
casts were made of 1,150 killed and show you a dog, man and infant whom all died in the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that buried (and preserved) the city.
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| Plaster cast of a dog from 79 A.D. |
EERIE PLASTER CASTS OF THE DEAD -
When Mount Vesuvius showered Pompeii with 6 meters (about 18 feet) of
ash. That ash surrounded human and animal remains and was compacted over
time, preserving the shape of the movement of the living being when the
ash swamped the city.
HOW DID THE ASH PRESERVE THE SHAPES? -
When the ash fall encased the
bodies it hardened and created a porous shell. The shell was in the
shape of how the bodies lay when smothered. Inside the ash shell, the
bodies decayed. So when excavators found these shapes, they made a hole
in them and filled them with plaster.
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| Plaster cast of a man, and many other things found in Pompeii |
The plaster casts are all stored in the remains of a large building in Pompeii and tourists can walk past it and take pictures.
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| Mt. Vesuvius from Pompeii |
HOW MANY DISCOVERED? - According to Atlasobscura.com, "Some 1,150 bodies have been discovered out of an estimated 2,000 thought
to have died in the disaster. This means that the vast majority of the
city of 20,000 fled at the first signs of the volcanic activity. The
plaster casts of the men, women, children, and animals of Pompeii were
primarily made in the mid 1800s."
NEXT: Dinner Time! Restaurants and Bakeries
