Pompeii and the Roman Navy

[kiwisue]

Almost the end of August and the first signs of spring have arrived. On Saturday we shook off the drab days and the banal stupidity of current events with a trip to the ANMM at Darling Harbour for the "Escape from Pompeii" exhibition. It was small but interesting, although the title was a little misleading. The conceit was that it was all about

Comments

[gilda_elise]

The exhibit sounds interesting, even if the title was misleading. I suppose back then there wasn't as much of a focus on a large percentage of a city dying, if those people weren't important people. And a volcano was a volcano. They certainly had their share around the area.

[kiwisue]

You're probably right - it seems odd to modern thinking that we only have one eyewitness account, spread over two letters to the same person (the first being about his uncle and the second an expansion of the things he witnessed personally, at the request of his correspondent - which were scary enough). And that's it - the actual cities covered by the volcano were left and forgotten for centuries, even though quite a lot of people must have evacuated before the plume collapsed and the cities were completely obliterated.

I know a couple of people who work at the ANMM and we had a short but spirited discussion yesterday about the exhibit - some of the disconnect may be due to the split between curating an exhibit and the marketing team...

[byslantedlight]

Nice poster (if a touch simplified... *g*) Totally sounds like an exhibition I'd've gone to, if I'd been on the other side of the world! I've never read the Pliny letters, sounds interesting.

I can't remember the Doyle (sorry, I can't think of him with the other name!)/Isis connection - must be overdue a re-read of Miles Scortillusque - not a bad idea, cos I've just about finished my current re-read of Larton, and was wondering where to go from there...

(Nice to see you on lj again, btw! Hope your world's been ticking along nicely...)

[kiwisue]

*g* - if you see the time-lapse vid that was probably state of the art when it was made, in 2009, on Youtube here, and any version of a vid about the Roman Navy this one is not the same, but covers the ground, and read Pliny the Younger:
here, and
here,
that would be about a third of the exhibition. There were artefacts: the ones I showed, a rostrum, multiple amphorae, a reinforced chest, jewellry, some body casts, eating and cooking utensils and a carbonised loaf...
Of course the best fun was going around with friends, followed by beer in the pub afterwards. I did join the museum, as the two-year rate for "seniors" was pretty good, and there are reciprocal arrangements although not as many as National Trust - reminds me, I have to do my membership there.

Now I seem to be on top of most of the secretarial stuff I took on in January (!) I hope to be around a lot more. At the moment it's baby steps - make sure I do at least one post a month.

[byslantedlight]

Of course the best fun was going around with friends, followed by beer in the pub afterwards.
Yeah, I can understand that - sounds fab! I miss that sort of thing!

Thanks for the links. The Pliny letters also reminded me that actually I will have read them, way back in my student days of Archaeology and Ancient History. I even own the Penguin versions... That first vid looks so impressive until you think about how much more could be done now (eight years later!)

Glad to hear about being on top of stuff - shall look forward to your baby steps. *g*