Bodies from the
Ash
tells the story of the victims of Pompeii. After
Mt. Vesuvius erupted on August 24 and 25, AD 79, Pompeii lay buried until 12
feet of volcanic ash and debris for the next 1700 years. Some attempts were made
to excavate the town, but no one was certain of its exact location. Finally, in
the mid-1700s, the town was rediscovered. Along with the desired treasures
(statues, marble, jewelry) that excavators sought for wealthy patrons, workers
also uncovered many skeletons of people who could not escape. At first, these
skeletons were placed in locations within the Pompeian ruins as curiosity
objects. Later, under the direction of Giuseppe Fiorelli, the hollow space
around some skeletons was used as a mold. Workers poured plaster of Paris into
the cavity; when the outer shell of the mold was chipped away, the plaster body
of a person remained—an imprint of that person’s last moment alive.
By studying these individuals and the possessions that they had with
them, Fiorelli and later scientists attempted to piece together their stories. Bodies
from the Ash describes what they have found and the stories they have
told. Approximately 50
photographs illustrate the book, many of them rare and many from the photography
archives of the Pompeii Archaeological Site.
