Pompeii Plaster Casts - Stabian Baths 1c
by Debra Martz
Title
Pompeii Plaster Casts - Stabian Baths 1c
Artist
Debra Martz
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Pompeii Plaster Casts - Stabian Baths by Debra Martz
Those that did not flee the city of Pompeii in August of 79 AD were doomed. Buried for 1700 years under 30 feet of mud and ash and reduced by the centuries to skeletons, they remained entombed until excavations in the early 1800s.
As excavators continued to uncover human remains, they noticed that the skeletons were surrounded by voids in the compacted ash. By carefully pouring plaster of Paris into the spaces, the final poses, clothing, and faces of the last residents of Pompeii came to life. This is known as the Fiorelli process; named after Giuseppe Fiorelli (1823-1896), an Italian archaeologist.
About 3/4 of Pompeii's 165 acres have been excavated, and some 1,150 bodies have been discovered out of an estimated 2,000 thought to have died in the city when it was destroyed. This means 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. The building they were originally housed in suffered extensive damage in WWII, and they are now located in several places around the city. The Stabian Thermal baths house two of the plaster casts.
Sources: www.atlasobscura.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Fiorelli
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©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved
In My Gallery/Collection:
"Italy"
Uploaded
May 16th, 2015
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