Squeezing Out the Last of Summer

With a few weeks of summer left (and a small chunk of change remaining from my fellowship), I decided to visit the Royal Ontario Museum’s Pompeii exhibit to learn a little more about the everyday life of the Roman people. It certainly is an impressive exhibit, featuring artifacts from the museums in Pompeii, from the jewelry to full wall frescoes. You get a good sense of life in Pompeii prior to the eruption, not that Pompeii was a typical Roman city. Pompeii was a villa town, a place where many Romans had summer homes and the community had a wealthy patron population. Yet, many of the same features of Roman cities I saw in Britain were echoed here - amphitheater, grid street design, forum, baths.

Trying to be one of the “locals” but desperately need some toga help!

Because of the tragedy unleashed by Mt. Vesuvius, there are so many well preserved artifacts. I was drawn to the mosaics and frescoes, including one mosaic we examined in my class last year as we studied food in the Roman Era.

Dozens and dozens of artifacts helped tell the story of a city frozen in time. The story of its re-dicovery and exhumation is also told in this exhibit. I remember as a kid reading all about Pompeii in National Geographic’s World magazine, the images of those plaster casts of human forms, the statues found in courtyards, the poor dog, left chained and unable to escape from the inferno. Well, he was here, too.

The human toll of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption was enormous - some 12,000 people lived in Pompeii, with thousands of others living in neighboring towns and cities. Many Romans fled upon the first sign of eruption, most by sea. While the weight of ash on roofs caused many to cave in, crushing and burying those seeking shelter, most victims died from the collapse of the ash and gas column that reached miles into the sky. The corresponding pyroclastic flow that ran down the sides of Mt. Vesuvius and swallowed Pompeii instantly killed thousands seeking refuge or trying to flee. 

The final part of the exhibit features casts of some of these victims and it is indeed a macabre scene. As the superheated cloud of ash and gas rolled over the city, victims were essentially cooked at a temperature of 932 degrees F. This carbonized the victim, causing the roasted muscle tissue to contract, pulling arms and legs toward the body. As ash continued to fall, these forms were preserved for centuries. As scientists began to question why there were cavities around bone finds, they began to fill these with plaster - and these open spaces took the forms of human victims.  

It was certainly worth the journey to Toronto to catch a glimpse of a Roman city held in time by the forces of nature. Much of what I had learned in Britain about everyday life was echoed here but thinking in terms of a timeline, Roman control over Britain was cemented around 77 C.E., just two years before the destruction of Pompeii. I wonder if any surviving wooden tablets or inscriptions in Britain remark upon these events - surely someone living there knew of friends or family from the region. Could be an interesting task for students to explore!