{"id":31478,"date":"2012-11-25T12:27:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-25T19:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/peering-at-pompeii.html"},"modified":"2012-11-25T12:27:39","modified_gmt":"2012-11-25T19:27:39","slug":"peering-at-pompeii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/peering-at-pompeii.html","title":{"rendered":"Peering at Pompeii"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interesting article on how the current ruins of\u00a0Pompeii (and Herculaneum) are a collaboration between the Ancient and Modern.<\/p>\n

One interesting bit:<\/p>\n

'But there are much wider issues at play than ancient Roman dress sense. For a start, these strangely ambivalent objects [plaster casts of the dead citizenry] bring us face to face with our own voyeurism. Why does it seem OK for us to gawp at these disaster victims, when it would be decidedly not OK to gawp at the death agonies of victims of a modern train crash or terror attack?<\/i><\/p>\n

Is it because, as some parents at the Getty suggested to their kids, they are just so ancient that they don't matter to us in the same way? As if in becoming archaeological specimens they lost their right to human privacy? Or is it the simple fact that these are not Roman bodies that gives us licence to peer?<\/i><\/p>\n

Surely, we don't imagine that a lump of 19th Century plaster poured into a void in the lava has any "right to privacy" – still less (as in the Getty example) a 20th Century copy of a 19th Century lump of plaster. As the other parents had it, they're "just models".'<\/i><\/p>\n

It actually calls to mind some of the controversies over Egyptian mummies, or the repatriation of Native American remains. I suspect that a big reason why the Pompeiian victims are okay to "gawp at" is because \u00a0there are clear modern successors, just outside the sites, going about their business, apparently unconcerned.<\/p>\n

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Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPompeii’s not-so-ancient Roman remains<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIs Pompeii an ancient or modern wonder? Its ruins have been rebuilt and the bodies of the volcano’s victims are plaster casts, says Mary Beard.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Google+:<\/strong> Reshared 1<\/a> times
Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interesting article on how the current ruins of\u00a0Pompeii (and Herculaneum) are a collaboration between the Ancient and Modern. One interesting bit: 'But there are much wider issues at play than ancient Roman dress sense. For a start, these strangely ambivalent objects [plaster casts of the dead citizenry] bring us face to face with our own … Continue reading “Peering at Pompeii”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25130,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/05\/pompeii-and-trash.html","url_meta":{"origin":31478,"position":0},"title":"Pompeii and trash","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Jan-12 1:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"What's interesting about this story is not so much how the Romans treated graves and trash, but how preconceptions of propriety amongst early archaeologists led to mistaken interpretations of what it all meant. #ddtb Embedded Link The bizarre story of where ancient Pompeii put its trash As far as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136628,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/29\/the-disaster-of-a-d-79.html","url_meta":{"origin":31478,"position":1},"title":"The Disaster of A.D. 79","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-May-18 10:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had the privilege of visiting both Pompeii\u00a0and Herculaneum. They are remarkable sites (and sights). A\u00a0touring Pompeii exhibit -- not, I think, the one mentioned in Chicago -- came through Denver a few years back. If you have the chance to go to such an exhibit (if not the places\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/pompeii.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39187,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/12\/personally-i-blame-grendel.html","url_meta":{"origin":31478,"position":2},"title":"Personally, I blame Grendel","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 12-Oct-13 3:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A mysteriously slaughtered village of ancient Sweden, the wealth left untouched but people brutally murdered. \u00a0Hmmmmm .... \u00a0(h\/t +Yonatan Zunger)Reshared post from +Kee HinckleyPristine archeological remains of a 1600 year old massacre in Sweden.Note the Roman and Byzantine jewelry. The ancient world was a lot more connected than we give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137334,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/17\/when-was-pompeii-actually-destroyed.html","url_meta":{"origin":31478,"position":3},"title":"When was Pompeii actually destroyed?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Oct-18 11:17am","format":false,"excerpt":"The historical consensus -- largely based on the accepted translation of an accepted copy of a letter that Pliny the Younger wrote a couple of decades after the fact -- was 24 August, AD 79. While the provenance of that date rests on shaky ground (so to speak), it's been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30045,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/31\/playing-politics-while-vesuvius-burns.html","url_meta":{"origin":31478,"position":4},"title":"Playing politics while Vesuvius burns","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 31-Aug-12 10:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Insights into Roman politics from wall paintings in Pompeii. Seen some of these. \u00a0Very cool. Embedded Link The Attack Ad, Pompeii-Style Politics could be a dirty business, even in seaside Pompeii. Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137816,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/14\/a-new-narcissus-in-pompeii.html","url_meta":{"origin":31478,"position":5},"title":"A new Narcissus in Pompeii","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Feb-19 7:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Pompeii is an amazing place, not least of which because there remains so much more to excavate and discover. Stunningly preserved fresco of Narcissus discovered in Pompeii | World news | The Guardian Original Post","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}