At a glance

Pompei ed Ercolano area archeologica (the most precisely Pompei zone Pompei Campania Italy 40.7506 N 14.4874 E UNESCO WHS 1997 reference 829: the calchi (the plaster casts of Pompeian victims: the technique (Giuseppe Fiorelli, the Soprintendente di Pompei 1860–75 CE: the invention of the plaster injection method (Fiorelli noticed that the pumice layer contained voids (cavities) where the organic material (bodies, wood, fabric) had dissolved; he injected liquid plaster into the cavities; when the plaster hardened, he chipped away the surrounding pumice; the result: the 3D form of the body at the moment of death); the number (the current count of plaster casts: approximately 2,000+ (the exact count is uncertain: the Pompeii Parco Archeologico database lists 1,044 casts catalogued to 2018 CE; the total cast production since Fiorelli is approximately 2,000; some casts have been destroyed or deteriorated)); the specific casts (the dog (the famous cast of a dog in a running position (the dog was chained; it died struggling against its chain; cast in the House of Vesuvius Victim (IX.2.26)); the pregnant woman (cast 44 in the Granary; the skeletal evidence confirms pregnancy; the woman was approximately 7 months pregnant); the gladiators (2 men found in the arena gladiatorum (the gladiators’ barracks; Reg. V.5.3): their equipment was still beside them); the recently completed “Il Grande Progetto Pompei” (2012–16 CE: €105 million EU-funded restoration of Regio V (the northeast quadrant of Pompei); 10 previously unexcavated blocks; the key discovery: the Regio V insula 10 complex (2018–ongoing excavations: the Thermopolium of Regio V (2019 CE): a perfectly preserved fast-food counter with the painted menu still on the counter (the 9 painted food images: duck, rooster, dog, wine flask, garland; the actual food remains inside the dolia (storage jars) at the time of the eruption: fragments of duck, pig, goat, fish, snail, egg, fava bean)); the Villa dei Misteri (Villa of the Mysteries; outside the Porta Ercolano (the northwest gate); the most important single room of Roman painting: the megalographic cycle (the “Room of the Great Painting”: 29 life-size figures on a red (Pompeian red) background; the subject: the Dionysiac mystery rite (an initiation ceremony for young women into the cult of Dionysus); the 12 scenes (identified from left to right: the Boy Reading, the Preparation, the Sacrifice, the Dionysian Scroll, Silenus Playing, the Goat, the Mask, the Winged Flagellant, the Flagellated, the Kneeling Figure, the Bride, the Matron); the specific Pompeian red (the pigment: cinnabar (mercuric sulphide; minium rubrum Pliny called it; mined mainly from the mines of Sisapo in Baetica (Spain); the most expensive pigment in the Roman world; Vitruvius lists it as 50 denarii per pound)); the Ercolano papyri (the Villa of the Papyri (2 km from the Ercolano excavation site; not fully excavated; accessible only via virtual reality exhibit in the Herculaneum Conservation Project museum): the 1,800 carbonized papyrus scrolls (the only surviving ancient library: the scrolls were carbonized (not burned) by the pyroclastic surge; the temperature was insufficient to combust the organic material but sufficient to convert it to carbon; the British Museum multi-spectral imaging project (2017 CE): the first partially legible Herculaneum papyrus scroll unrolled digitally (PHerc.118: a work by Philodemus of Gadara, the Epicurean philosopher who lived in the villa c.70–40 BCE)).