About Me

I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

Instagram Shots

    See more

    More liked posts

    Pompeii Live from the British Museum

    Coming to a cinema near you

    Don’t miss the world première of Pompeii Live – the first live cinema event produced by the British Museum from a major exhibition.

    See the wonders of the exhibition from the comfort of the cinema, introduced live by British Museum Director Neil MacGregor and featuring Mary Beard, Rachel de Thame, Giorgio Locatelli and Exhibition Curator Paul Roberts who bring extraordinary objects to life in this unique event.

    Plus, you’ll see specially made films of Pompeii and Herculaneum today, and go behind the scenes of the exhibition to explore the stories of these famous Roman cities.

    (Source: The British Museum)

    Pompeii: What objects did people take as they fled?

    Buried in volcanic ash alongside the people of ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum were the possessions they took with them as Mount Vesuvius erupted, but what do these items they clung to tell us about them and us?

    The city of Herculaneum at the foot of Mount Vesuvius was overwhelmed by a fiery pyroclastic flow - a fast moving current of superheated ash and gas - which would have swamped and killed its victims - instantly vaporising their flesh.

    And around 10 miles (16km) away the citizens of Pompeii also died suddenly, killed by extreme heat of 300C. Falling ash preserved the forms of many of their bodies.

    Until that day, they would not have had any idea that the volcano was a danger, says Paul Roberts, curator of the British Museum’s Pompeii exhibition.

    Vesuvius is thought to have lain dormant for the previous 700 years. There had been earth tremors for several days before the eruption, according to an eye-witness account made by the younger Pliny, a Roman administrator and poet.

    But ancient Romans thought these were caused by currents of air, and were unaware that they could be a warning of a volcanic eruption.

    All the evidence is that the eruption in AD79 caught the local population utterly unprepared.

    But as Vesuvius began emitting black clouds of ash, and the danger became more obvious, most people fled or sought shelter. So what did they reach for in the hours before the fatal eruption?

    Read more.

    Four ways to be killed by a volcano Active volcanoes are dangerous places. They can wipe out whole cities and kill large numbers of people. The ghost-like casts from the Roman city of Pompeii are a reminder of the lethal eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79, which killed thousands and preserved their bodies in the position of their death. But it wasn’t red-hot lava or suffocating clouds of ash that killed them, it was something far more unusual. Lava flows, or the molten rock that oozes from shield volcanoes moves far too slowly to be truly deadly. The real killers are much more frightening. Read more.

    Four ways to be killed by a volcano

    Active volcanoes are dangerous places. They can wipe out whole cities and kill large numbers of people.

    The ghost-like casts from the Roman city of Pompeii are a reminder of the lethal eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79, which killed thousands and preserved their bodies in the position of their death. But it wasn’t red-hot lava or suffocating clouds of ash that killed them, it was something far more unusual. Lava flows, or the molten rock that oozes from shield volcanoes moves far too slowly to be truly deadly. The real killers are much more frightening.

    Read more.

    Pompeii exhibition: Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, British Museum, review The British Museum’s stunning new exhibition transports the visitor back to the days before disaster struck the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum, says Richard Dorment. At the entrance to this show, isolated from the main body of exhibits, we encounter a glass vitrine containing three objects. The first is a plaster cast of a dog, its grotesquely convulsed body evidence of the agony in which it died. Almost more horrible, its collar tells us that it was probably a guard dog left tethered to its place when Pompeii was buried in volcanic debris. The second and third objects are from Herculaneum – a wooden table turned by extreme heat into charcoal, and a fragment of fresco showing a banquet where a table of the same design is in use. Wall labels explain that when Vesuvius erupted in the late summer or autumn of AD 79, a dense black cloud shot into the sky. Volcanic ash and pumice then rained down on Pompeii, killing those who were still out of doors or burying the ones who had stayed inside when roofs and walls collapsed. Even more lethal was a later volcanic emission called a pyroclastic surge. A swift avalanche of superheated gas, ash and pumice, its extreme heat essentially cooked people and animals buried under volcanic debris. In Herculaneum, where there had been no build-up of ash and pumice, the pyroclastic surge was the sole cause of death. Annihilation happened instantaneously. The population was simply incinerated. Read more here.

    Pompeii exhibition: Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, British Museum, review

    The British Museum’s stunning new exhibition transports the visitor back to the days before disaster struck the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum, says Richard Dorment.

    At the entrance to this show, isolated from the main body of exhibits, we encounter a glass vitrine containing three objects. The first is a plaster cast of a dog, its grotesquely convulsed body evidence of the agony in which it died. Almost more horrible, its collar tells us that it was probably a guard dog left tethered to its place when Pompeii was buried in volcanic debris. The second and third objects are from Herculaneum – a wooden table turned by extreme heat into charcoal, and a fragment of fresco showing a banquet where a table of the same design is in use.

    Wall labels explain that when Vesuvius erupted in the late summer or autumn of AD 79, a dense black cloud shot into the sky. Volcanic ash and pumice then rained down on Pompeii, killing those who were still out of doors or burying the ones who had stayed inside when roofs and walls collapsed. Even more lethal was a later volcanic emission called a pyroclastic surge. A swift avalanche of superheated gas, ash and pumice, its extreme heat essentially cooked people and animals buried under volcanic debris.

    In Herculaneum, where there had been no build-up of ash and pumice, the pyroclastic surge was the sole cause of death. Annihilation happened instantaneously. The population was simply incinerated.

    Read more here.

    Pompeii’s not-so-ancient Roman remains Is Pompeii an ancient or a modern wonder? Its ruins have been rebuilt and the bodies of the volcano’s victims are plaster casts, says classical historian Mary Beard. Last weekend I spent a couple of hours with the remains of one of the human victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79. The corpse is apparently well preserved: a young woman, lying face down, shielding her face with her hands at the moment of death. Her dress has risen up and is tangled around her waist, her bare legs exposed beneath. She is currently on display at the J Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, as the first exhibit in a show that explores the ways that modern artists - from Francesco Piranesi to Anthony Gormley - have responded to history’s most famous volcanic eruption. “Welcome to Pompeii,” she is meant to say. “The city of the dead”. I was curious to find out what visitors to the exhibition made of her. So I lurked and listened. A great piece by Mary Beard - check out the rest here!

    Pompeii’s not-so-ancient Roman remains

    Is Pompeii an ancient or a modern wonder? Its ruins have been rebuilt and the bodies of the volcano’s victims are plaster casts, says classical historian Mary Beard.

    Last weekend I spent a couple of hours with the remains of one of the human victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79.

    The corpse is apparently well preserved: a young woman, lying face down, shielding her face with her hands at the moment of death. Her dress has risen up and is tangled around her waist, her bare legs exposed beneath.

    She is currently on display at the J Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, as the first exhibit in a show that explores the ways that modern artists - from Francesco Piranesi to Anthony Gormley - have responded to history’s most famous volcanic eruption. “Welcome to Pompeii,” she is meant to say. “The city of the dead”.

    I was curious to find out what visitors to the exhibition made of her. So I lurked and listened.

    A great piece by Mary Beard - check out the rest here!

    British Museum uses its loaf as Pompeii exhibits come to town Remains of family and dog ‘frozen in time’ among items surviving Vesuvius eruption to be displayed in spring A loaf of bread which was put in the oven in AD79 and removed from it in the 1930s, and a charred baby’s cradle which still rocks almost 2,000 years after its owner died, are some of the objects coming to the British Museum this spring for its exhibition on one of the most famous disasters in history: the eruption of Vesuvius. As well as the objects which surrounded them in life, there will be casts made from the bodies of those who died in 79AD, when the monstrous eruption blew off the entire top of the mountain and engulfed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The six casts of those who died choking in the ash which fell like snow or were poisoned by noxious gases, include the most famous dog from the ancient world, frozen in time writhing against its collar and the rope which still tied it to a stake as it died. It was found just a few yards from an equally famous mosaic, which is also coming, originally guarding the threshold of a house in Pompeii, of a prancing red-collared black and white dog with the warning Cave Canem. Among thhe items coming to the exhibition are the remains of an entire family, two adults and two children, found cowering under a staircase in Pompeii. The casts were made in a technique invented in the 19th century to preserve the most moving testimony to the catastrophe by pouring plaster into the voids in the ash left as bodies decomposed, preserving the people as they fell – covering their heads, curled up like babies, or struggling to shelter a child. The two towns were different in life and death. Herculaneum was overwhelmed by a fiery pyroclastic flow hot enough to evaporate human flesh, so fast and furious that charred food remained on carbonised tables from meals that were never eaten. The town was buried 80 feet deep, and only a third of it has been excavated. Pompeii choked more slowly, and the tops of buildings were left sticking out of the ash field, so as early as Roman times people burrowed into the ruins for building materials and works of art. Pompeii was the larger and more racketty town, full of bars and brothels, Herculaneum wealthier and quieter. It was as if Brighton and Hove, had randomly remained as evidence of modern British culture, said British Museum director Neil MacGregor. Despite the display of bodies and the poignant objects the citizens snatched up as they tried to flee a collapsing cloud of ash and gas towering 19 miles into the sky above their heads, curator Paul Roberts, head of Roman collections at the museum, said the emphasis would be on everyday life in the towns, not death. Real faces of the living inhabitants will include an imposing bronze bust of a banker and money lender, who was also a freed slave as up to half the population may have been. A vivid wall painting portrays a baker, Terentius Neo, and his wife: his wife is nameless but, as MacGregor remarked, she looks much the brighter of the two, standing slightly in front of him and holding a writing tablet – striking evidence of her literacy and status. The exhibition comes after the international outcryfollowing building collapses at Pompeii two years ago, which led to some calling for the sites and collections to be removed from Italian state control. MacGregor and Roberts praised the relationship with the Italian authorities in charge of the museum in Naples and the two sites as a true collaboration: the Italians are charging no loan fees, and have allowed unprecedented access to treasures, including sending six pieces of Herculaneum furniture, when no more than two have ever left the country together. Roberts praised the “outstanding work” being done at the sites. The body casts, which include one woman who was cast in resin instead of plaster so that her bones are visible, will be shown in a separate section at the end. “We recognise that for some people the idea of death will be the most challenging element of the exhibition, but we would prefer that people not avoid the bodies,” Roberts said. He said he found some previous exhibitions of the casts distasteful, when they were shown in lurid lighting or with melodramatic music. “These are real people, and we will treat them with the greatest respect. If these people had not died, we would not have this exhibition.” • Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, British Museum, 28 March - 29 September 2013.

    British Museum uses its loaf as Pompeii exhibits come to town

    Remains of family and dog ‘frozen in time’ among items surviving Vesuvius eruption to be displayed in spring

    A loaf of bread which was put in the oven in AD79 and removed from it in the 1930s, and a charred baby’s cradle which still rocks almost 2,000 years after its owner died, are some of the objects coming to the British Museum this spring for its exhibition on one of the most famous disasters in history: the eruption of Vesuvius.

    As well as the objects which surrounded them in life, there will be casts made from the bodies of those who died in 79AD, when the monstrous eruption blew off the entire top of the mountain and engulfed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

    The six casts of those who died choking in the ash which fell like snow or were poisoned by noxious gases, include the most famous dog from the ancient world, frozen in time writhing against its collar and the rope which still tied it to a stake as it died. It was found just a few yards from an equally famous mosaic, which is also coming, originally guarding the threshold of a house in Pompeii, of a prancing red-collared black and white dog with the warning Cave Canem.

    Among thhe items coming to the exhibition are the remains of an entire family, two adults and two children, found cowering under a staircase in Pompeii. The casts were made in a technique invented in the 19th century to preserve the most moving testimony to the catastrophe by pouring plaster into the voids in the ash left as bodies decomposed, preserving the people as they fell – covering their heads, curled up like babies, or struggling to shelter a child.

    The two towns were different in life and death. Herculaneum was overwhelmed by a fiery pyroclastic flow hot enough to evaporate human flesh, so fast and furious that charred food remained on carbonised tables from meals that were never eaten. The town was buried 80 feet deep, and only a third of it has been excavated. Pompeii choked more slowly, and the tops of buildings were left sticking out of the ash field, so as early as Roman times people burrowed into the ruins for building materials and works of art.

    Pompeii was the larger and more racketty town, full of bars and brothels, Herculaneum wealthier and quieter. It was as if Brighton and Hove, had randomly remained as evidence of modern British culture, said British Museum director Neil MacGregor.

    Despite the display of bodies and the poignant objects the citizens snatched up as they tried to flee a collapsing cloud of ash and gas towering 19 miles into the sky above their heads, curator Paul Roberts, head of Roman collections at the museum, said the emphasis would be on everyday life in the towns, not death.

    Real faces of the living inhabitants will include an imposing bronze bust of a banker and money lender, who was also a freed slave as up to half the population may have been. A vivid wall painting portrays a baker, Terentius Neo, and his wife: his wife is nameless but, as MacGregor remarked, she looks much the brighter of the two, standing slightly in front of him and holding a writing tablet – striking evidence of her literacy and status.

    The exhibition comes after the international outcryfollowing building collapses at Pompeii two years ago, which led to some calling for the sites and collections to be removed from Italian state control.

    MacGregor and Roberts praised the relationship with the Italian authorities in charge of the museum in Naples and the two sites as a true collaboration: the Italians are charging no loan fees, and have allowed unprecedented access to treasures, including sending six pieces of Herculaneum furniture, when no more than two have ever left the country together. Roberts praised the “outstanding work” being done at the sites.

    The body casts, which include one woman who was cast in resin instead of plaster so that her bones are visible, will be shown in a separate section at the end. “We recognise that for some people the idea of death will be the most challenging element of the exhibition, but we would prefer that people not avoid the bodies,” Roberts said.

    He said he found some previous exhibitions of the casts distasteful, when they were shown in lurid lighting or with melodramatic music.

    “These are real people, and we will treat them with the greatest respect. If these people had not died, we would not have this exhibition.”

    • Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, British Museum, 28 March - 29 September 2013.

    Pompeii’s Dead Reimagined By Jarrett A. Lobell An artist interprets the ancient city’s most evocative artifacts Almost 150 years after Fiorelli made his first cast, artist Gary Staab was commissioned to make models of four original Pompeian casts for a special exhibition on Pompeii in New York (“Vesuvius Strikes Again,” May/June, 2011). In doing so, Staab created a new type of evidence. His models record not only these individuals’ deaths, but also the context in which the original casts were fashioned by Fiorelli and later archaeologists. Staab’s models are not precise replicas of these earlier casts, but rather interpretations of them. They are a product of technologies and materials not previously available and also of Staab’s own input as an artist. Staab is known for creating some of the world’s most impressive museum models, bringing life to dinosaurs and Inca sacrificial victims, and for having made the only replica of King Tut’s mummy. And while he was aware of the Pompeii casts, he had never seen them in person or been to the site. Staab recalls, “As soon as I got there, I was just blown away.” He had only three days to do all his fieldwork. Apart from the necessary tasks of measuring and photographing the originals, being on-site in Pompeii was crucial to Staab. “It’s really important to me to get a sense of place. The best thing you can do to understand someone, to relate to them, even after they are gone, is to try to walk in their shoes and to see what they saw,” he says. “The beauty of it all is on the human level as you lie in the dust where these people died. I was crawling on the ground and lying in the pumice with small bits of artifacts and rubble under me,” Staab adds. Just as Fiorelli may have done. Via Archaeology

    Pompeii’s Dead Reimagined

    By Jarrett A. Lobell

    An artist interprets the ancient city’s most evocative artifacts

    Almost 150 years after Fiorelli made his first cast, artist Gary Staab was commissioned to make models of four original Pompeian casts for a special exhibition on Pompeii in New York (“Vesuvius Strikes Again,” May/June, 2011). In doing so, Staab created a new type of evidence. His models record not only these individuals’ deaths, but also the context in which the original casts were fashioned by Fiorelli and later archaeologists. Staab’s models are not precise replicas of these earlier casts, but rather interpretations of them. They are a product of technologies and materials not previously available and also of Staab’s own input as an artist.

    Staab is known for creating some of the world’s most impressive museum models, bringing life to dinosaurs and Inca sacrificial victims, and for having made the only replica of King Tut’s mummy. And while he was aware of the Pompeii casts, he had never seen them in person or been to the site. Staab recalls, “As soon as I got there, I was just blown away.” He had only three days to do all his fieldwork. Apart from the necessary tasks of measuring and photographing the originals, being on-site in Pompeii was crucial to Staab. “It’s really important to me to get a sense of place. The best thing you can do to understand someone, to relate to them, even after they are gone, is to try to walk in their shoes and to see what they saw,” he says. “The beauty of it all is on the human level as you lie in the dust where these people died. I was crawling on the ground and lying in the pumice with small bits of artifacts and rubble under me,” Staab adds. Just as Fiorelli may have done.

    Via Archaeology