A Day in Pompeii

Yesterday Dr. M & I decided to head down to Cincinnati

to check out the newest exhibit at the Museum Center.

As most of you are aware, Pompeii was destroyed by a volcano back in the olden days (79 A.D.).

I enjoyed exploring the exhibits & checking out the artwork that has been excavated from the scene.

And I enjoyed hearing about the lives of the people who lived there - it was a city of about 20,000 people!

They ate out a lot because many of them lived in apartments without kitchens

Plumbing items!

The little spoon was used to mix cosmetics - all of the items in this case were related to that. 

Burial items

But the further we went into the exhibit the more disturbed I got. The story stopped being about an ancient city's destruction, & became more about the lives of actual people who were destroyed in just a few hours. 

Carbonized loaf of bread

The person who baked it never ate that beautiful loaf of bread. The people who died were never buried with their tokens. 


There is a short film reenacting what happened the day that Mt. Vesuvius blew. 

I don't think there was anything left alive to witness that final scene of destruction. 

Over 13 FEET of ash covered the city.

The next room showed body casts of people who had not fled the city. It was heart wrenching. I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures of them.

But because I am the Bug, I was able to recover myself once we hit the gift shop. Am I ready for my world to go up in flames (it's sure been hot enough!)? I think so!

[Note - low light, no flash photograph = less than stellar pictures!]