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March 13, 2026

New permanent exhibition shows plaster casts of Pompeii victims frozen at the moment of their death

By FRANCESCO SPORTELLI and GIADA ZAMPANO
Associated Press

Pompeii, Italy — More than 20 plaster casts of victims who died in the catastrophic volcano eruption in Pompeii went on display for the first time Thursday in a permanent exhibition.

The casts, which scholars call “imprints of pain,” dramatically capture the exact position each resident of the city died in 79 AD. The reproductions were created by pouring liquid plaster into the voids left by the decomposed bodies in the hardened ash.


 
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