Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Scanning the bodies from Pompeii

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Revealed - what's inside the Pompeii mummies: Incredible CT scans show bodies in unprecedented detail laying bare their bones, delicate facial features and even dental cavities (Victoria Woollaston, Daily Mail)
  • Restorers are working on 86 preserved plaster casts of Romans who died when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD
  • Each of the victims have been entombed in ash and now plaster for more than 1,900 years
  • Experts have spent the summer scanning these bodies using CT scanners at the Pompeii Archaeological Site
  • They have now released the first results of these scans to show what lies beneath the plaster of the victims
Remarkable, if macabre, technological progress. Pompeii has featured from time to time on PaleoJudaica, notably here, here, here, and here and links. It has even occasionally come up in connection with ancient Judaism, such as here, here and here and links.