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A Day in Pompeii

2009 Melbourne Winter Masterpiece

Pompeii body casts
Source: Museum Victoria
Photographer: Benjamin Healley

An exhibition depicting the daily life of one of the world's most extraordinary cities: Pompeii.

"A fearful black cloud was rent by forked and quivering bursts of flame . . ., darkness fell . . . as if a lamp had been put out in a dark room."  Eyewitness account, Pliny the Younger.

On August 24, A.D. 79, the Roman city of Pompeii was buried by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The very debris and ash that so suddenly and violently ended life in Pompeii also encased the city in a virtual time capsule. As a result, Pompeii is today one of the most complete and intact archaeological sites in the world.

A Day in Pompeii takes visitors back in time to experience life and death in this cosmopolitan city. The exhibition features hundreds of exceptional objects that laid buried in Pompeii’s ruins for over 17 centuries. Included are room-size frescoes, marble and bronze sculptures, jewellery, gold coins and everyday household items – all of which evoke the richness and culture of daily life in the Roman Empire’s favourite vacation resort.

Most poignant and dramatic, however, are the body casts of the volcano’s victims, frozen in their last moments: a couple in their final embrace, a man clutching a cloth to his mouth, a fleeing slave with his ankle manacle still in place, a dog struggling on its chain.

BODY CASTS NOW ON DISPLAY, until 25 June 2009
To celebrate the announcement of the exhibition, visitors to Melbourne Museum have the unique opportunity to view a body cast of two women who were among nine victims found in the garden of the House of Cryptoporticus.

Melbourne Winter Masterpieces is a Victorian Government initiative and is exclusive to Melbourne, Australia.

Presented in association with the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompeii.

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