The Garden of the Fugitives (Italian : Orto dei Fuggiaschi) [1] is an archaeological site located in the ancient destroyed city of Pompeii, in Regio 1 Insula 21. [2] [3] It contains the casts of 13 victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. [4]
The insula once contained more town houses than the two which stand at the northwestern end of the insula but the rest of the area had been largely converted into a vegetable garden and vineyard before the eruption, with a triclinium covered by a pergola for outdoor banquets.
The garden is situated near the Large Palaestra and just inside the Nocera gate. Today it has been extensively and carefully replanted to represent the original contents. [5]
The victims were adults and children, several found close together and others scattered over the area. They died apparently while trying to find a way out of the Nocera Gate, as they were above the layer of pumice that had already reached a height of 3.5 m, and were caught by the pyroclastic flow which was fatal.
The Fugitives were uncovered by Amedeo Maiuri, the superintendent of Pompeii. They were uncovered in 1961 as hollow cavities where the flesh had rotted away. When filled with plaster of paris, the bodies of the victims were revealed. They were originally found in three smaller groups. [6] They are now displayed in one long line.
Maiuri published stories for each of the bodies in the November 1961 edition of National Geographic ("Last Moments of the Pompeians"). These stories are now considered largely fictitious. [6]
Belonging to a group of people Maiuri called a merchant family, this victim rises up on his hands. He has a metal nail holding his head and arm to his body. [6]
Due to the compression of the bones in the merchant's wrist, it has been determined that the merchant, in life, had a severe case of osteoarthritis. There are breaks in the upper arm bone that occurred around or after the time of death. It is possible these were caused by a fall onto the arm. [6]
Described by Maiuri "her body already weakened through childbirth". She lies with the youngest child, near two other young children Maiuri said had been holding hands and fallen together. The two boys were between five and two based on forensic dentistry examination. [6]
Described as a young couple and their daughter, formally dubbed "The Farmer's Daughter". From the state of her teeth, she was about 12–14 months at the time of death. This makes her the youngest victim recovered in Pompeii.
Maiuri described a servant carrying a bag over his shoulder and leading the last family to safety, however x-rays revealed that the presumed bag is actually just a mis-formation of the plaster. The servant was aged to be about in his mid-teens based on bone data.
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Pompeii: The Last Day is a 2003 dramatized documentary that tells of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius towards the end of August, 79 AD. This eruption covered the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash and pumice, killing a large number of people trapped between the volcano and the sea. The documentary, which portrays the different phases of the eruption, was directed by Peter Nicholson and written by Edward Canfor-Dumas.
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The House of the Surgeon is one of the most famous houses in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and is named after ancient surgical instruments that were found there. Along with the rest of the city, it was buried and largely preserved under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
Pompeii was an ancient city located in what is now the comune of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town, located in the modern-day comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The Amphitheatre of Pompeii is one of the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatres. It is located in the ancient city of Pompeii, near Naples, and was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, that also buried the city of Pompeii and the neighbouring town of Herculaneum.
Dr. Estelle Lazer is an independent archaeologist who has worked on sites in the Middle East, Italy, Cyprus, the UK, Antarctica and Australia. She teaches at the University of Sydney and the University of NSW. Her PhD thesis was based on the human skeletal remains discovered at Pompeii, where she spent over 7 field seasons.
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Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius was a prominent politician and wealthy businessman in ancient Pompeii, who gained wide popularity with the citizens of the town through his sponsorship of gladiatorial games and other spectacles.
The Pompeii Lakshmi is an ivory statuette that was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, a Roman city destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 79 CE. It was found by Amedeo Maiuri, an Italian scholar, in 1938. The statuette has been dated to the first-century CE. The statuette is thought of as representing an Indian goddess of feminine beauty and fertility. It is possible that the sculpture originally formed the handle of a mirror. The yakshi is evidence of commercial trade between India and Rome in the first century CE.
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