Echoes of humanity: Myth and Mortality in a Buried City
(2016) After Death: Approaches to Death from Ancient Times to Now — Location: Melbourne (3.December.2016)
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- Authors
Van de Ven, Annelies 
- Abstract
- Pompeii is often seen as a site frozen in time, a tribute to its former life. In this mythical narrative, the site became a tomb for both its population and their culture in its burial by Mount Vesuvius. As such it is presented as something dead and unchanging. However, as the exhibition ‘The Dead Don’t Bury Themselves’ shows, tombs and their material contents are far from static, they are continuously changing through their public, archaeological and museological interpretation. The plaster casts are particularly telling in this case as their change was one from empty space to a material form, one that could be inscribed with emotion and meaning. The result is not a body, but an anti-body, one that we can empathize with, but one that is still distinct from our own. Rather than juxtaposing the modern with the ancient, these re-interpretations show the dialectical relationship between the two. This echo of joint mortality is what we feel upon viewing archaeological materials, especially those related to burial, eliciting both our fascination and apprehension.
- Affiliations
University of Melbourne
Citations
Van de Ven, A. (2016). Echoes of humanity: Myth and Mortality in a Buried City. After Death: Approaches to Death from Ancient Times to Now, Melbourne. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/213676