CT Scanning a plaster cast. Photo courtesy of Estelle Lazer.
Encased in Plaster: Scientific Revelations from the Casts of Pompeii’s Victims
GETTY VILLA
The Getty Villa and Online
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Plaster casts of bodies buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 were successfully made in the mid 1860s. They generated dramatic tales of the victims' lives and deaths based on scant research and circumstantial evidence. Archaeologist Estelle Lazer discusses her work with the Pompeii Cast Project and her analysis of the first complete X-ray and CT scans of the casts. The images reveal new information about the people of Pompeii and challenge longstanding myths.
Estelle Lazer is an independent archaeologist based in Sydney, Australia, and teaches at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales. She has spent several field seasons working on the human skeletal remains at Pompeii. Lazer is a founding member of the Pompeii Cast Project, whose aim is to better understand the victims of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 by utilizing the latest developments in digital imaging and scientific analysis.
Learn more about and sign up for Estelle Lazer's talk "The Last Days of Pompeii" on Sunday, April 16 at 2:00 p.m.