# Question regarding Pompeii's living statues **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 22, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018 "2017-12-22T01:00:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018/21 "2017-12-22T22:57:29Z")
There is a [fascinating exhibit](https://www.azscience.org/attractions/pompeii-the-exhibition/) making the rounds in the US. Currently in Phoenix. Plaster casts and other artifacts from Pompeii. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018/22 "2017-12-22T22:59:02Z")
> [@Shagunathor](#): > > Consolidated volcanic ash is commonly called “tuff.” Huh. That’s funny. Tuff is the name of a common sculpture material in ancient Pompeii. Heh – casually working with what will soon entomb you. Ironic. > [@BobBitchin](#): > > I learned about Pompeii in grade school, and I got the impression that those were entombed remains, and it never really came up again. Yes, it wasn’t really well explained to me back in school days. I also originally believed it was some sort of ash replacement of flesh somehow discerned when excavated. According to Wikipedia, they’re not doing this anymore, it ruins the remains. As was said above, we’d like to know more about these people – jewelry, heath information found from bones, etc. When I toured, one teacher was very impressed with this technology, even flawlessly casting dog skeletons. And I said, “We only see the perfect ones, they probably screwed up a bunch before they got it right.” And she got quiet. Did I say something wrong? Fun Fact: I was watching some Nat Geo show on the topic of Pompeii, it was very ultra dramatic: Senator was refurbishing his villa for political reasons. His very pregnant daughter just wanted to rest. “Sorry dearest, but this is how Daddy makes his money. Go and rest, I’ll tell them to keep it down.” When the disaster struck, they couldn’t leave, and died in their beds. As the disaster progressed, a wealthy merchant’s wife had to take shelter with some gladiators. Trapped, she and the African one, well, made the most of the situation. I’m like. Groan. As if any of these excessively dramatic situations is provable. Pfft. Actually, from the archeological studies, the items found, positions of the bones, these situations are absolutely true and verifiable. A fully developed infant skeleton, right where it should have been in the adult females skeleton, with workmen’s tools and workmen in the next room. Jewelry on the bodies identifying people of high wealth and rank mingling with people whose lack of jewelry showed lower rank, or skeletons that show old age, or signs of slave labor. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018/23 "2017-12-23T01:05:41Z")
> [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](#): > > There is a [fascinating exhibit](https://www.azscience.org/attractions/pompeii-the-exhibition/) making the rounds in the US. Currently in Phoenix. Plaster casts and other artifacts from Pompeii. I saw it in Kansas City. Pompei has fascinated me ever since I was a kid. Seeing the dog casting was a real highlight. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018/24 "2017-12-23T12:48:53Z")
IIRC the gladiator’s school (with a wide arcade of arches, so good shelter) was near one of the seaside city gates. A number of people were found here, the theory being they were sheltering while waiting for boats to arrive and rescue them. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018/25 "2017-12-23T17:57:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > When I toured Pompeii, I was told that astronaut John Glenn, seeing the plaster casts and learning that there were bones and jewelry inside those casts, suggested that they instead make future casts with modern clear plastic, so that they could see what was inside. as far as I know, they’ve never tried this. > > Of course, today you can take CAT scans of the plaster and tell what’s inside those casts. This has been tried, but only in the one instance. Back in 1984, the [“Resin Lady”](https://www.flickr.com/photos/91732901@N04/9443558248/lightbox/) was created using one of the deaths at Oplontis, near Pompeii. The epoxy resin technique was somewhat indirect, being akin to traditional “lost wax” casting, and by all accounts somewhat trickier and more expensive than the traditional plaster of Paris method. The result isn’t particularly transparent - I saw the cast when it was lent to the British Museum’s _Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum_ blockbuster back in 2013 - but is sufficiently so as to give some idea of what jewellery was inside. Just as crucially, they also chose the resin to make it more amenable to X-rays. It’s the cost and awkwardness that have left it as an experimental one-off. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2017, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018/26 "2017-12-24T03:30:14Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … Actually, in the movie it wasn’t a plaster cast, but something that looks remarkably like one of those plaster statues that digs its way out of the ground. It’s the reincarnation of Quintillus, a Roman Gladiator, and he pursues the woman who is the reincarnation of his lost love. It’s a low-budget “Mummy” movie, with a plot re-hashing Im-Ho-Tep’s and Kharis’ quests for the reincarnations of their lost loves in the Universal movies of the 1930s and 1940s. … The quest for the re-incarnation of a lost love was a central plot point in Rider Hagard’s novel “She”, (serialised 1886 ~ 1887), and she echoed anf 'eternal" female character in his first book “King Solomon’s Mines” Was it original even then? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018/27 "2017-12-24T14:38:44Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > This has been tried, but only in the one instance. Back in 1984, the [“Resin Lady”](https://www.flickr.com/photos/91732901@N04/9443558248/lightbox/) was created using one of the deaths at Oplontis, near Pompeii. The epoxy resin technique was somewhat indirect, being akin to traditional “lost wax” casting, and by all accounts somewhat trickier and more expensive than the traditional plaster of Paris method. > The result isn’t particularly transparent - I saw the cast when it was lent to the British Museum’s _Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum_ blockbuster back in 2013 - but is sufficiently so as to give some idea of what jewellery was inside. Just as crucially, they also chose the resin to make it more amenable to X-rays. > > It’s the cost and awkwardness that have left it as an experimental one-off. Well, considering it’s basically a sand casting, it’s not going to be a shiny glossy smooth result - it will be more like frosted with I imagine more than a few flakes of the ash/tuffa embedded in the surface layer. And that’s what the link looks like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-pompeiis-living-statues/805018.md?page=1)