Resurrecting Pompeii / Estelle Lazer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lazer, Estelle.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pompeii (Extinct city).

Excavations (Archaeology)--Italy--Pompeii (Extinct city).

Excavations (Archaeology).

Italy--Pompeii (Extinct city).

Human remains (Archaeology)--Italy--Pompeii (Extinct city).

Human remains (Archaeology).

Naples Region (Italy)--Antiquities.

Naples Region (Italy).

Physical Description:

xvii, 386 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2009.

Summary:

Pompeii has been continuously excavated and studied since 1748. Early scholars working there and in other sites associated with the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius were seduced by the wealth of artefacts and wall painting yielded by the site, meaning that the less visually attractive evidence, such as human skeletal remains, was largely ignored, and its archaeological value unrecognized and compromised.

A number of skeletons were used as props for vignettes of the tragic last moments of the victims, made to impress dignitaries visiting the site. They were also used to creatively reconstruct the lives of the victims in literary works, such as Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 novel, The Last Days of Pompeii, where the skeletal evidence is presented through storytelling with a thin veneer of science. This work in particular has had a profound influence and has driven the agenda of many Pompeian and Campanian skeletal studies into the twenty-first century.

Recognizing the important contribution of the human skeletal evidence to the archaeological of Pompeii and studying the reasons for the scientific neglect of the human remains, Resurrecting Pompeii provides detailed information about what the skeletal record can actually provide. Estelle Lazer demonstrates that biological evidence dose not support the detail of the stories that have been told to date , but it dose yield tantalizing glimpses into the lives and deaths of the victims, providing students of archaeology and history with an essential resource in the study of this fascinating historical event.

Contents:

The last days of Pompeii

Skeletons as artefacts

An Egyptian interlude

An anthropological resource

Context of a mass disaster

The victims

The nature of the evidence

Attribution of sex

Determination of age at death

General health and lifestyle indicators

The population

The casts

Making sense.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415261463

0415261465

9780203885161

0203885163

OCLC:

267056382