Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD and buried the ancient Roman town of Pompeii and its neighbour Herculaneum, killing about 2,000 people.
The blockbuster exhibition A Day in Pompeii at the Western Australian Museum - Perth provides a vivid account of this event and WA Museum chief executive officer Alec Coles said that people booking tickets to see the exhibition tomorrow would be given a free ticket for every one purchased.
“The exhibition has drawn more than 80,000 visitors since it opened in May, and the numbers of people coming through are steadily increasing as the final day of September 12 draws closer,” Mr Coles said.
“I expect thousands of people to visit the exhibition during its final days at the Museum and I hope people will take advantage of the special two-for-one ticket offer of to mark the anniversary of Pompeii’s demise.”
Mr Coles said that the exhibition was based on the eye witness account of the events of August 24 and 25 by Pliny the Younger from his vantage point at nearby Misenum where he was staying with his uncle.
“Reaching across almost two thousand years, Pliny, aged 18 at the time, gives us a graphic written account of what occurred as he writes to historian Cornelius Tacitus,” he said.
“His letters, miraculously surviving the ages, describe a disaster that must have seemed to him like the wrath of the gods, the end of the earth – unimaginable horror and chaos.”
Mr Coles said Vesuvius had not erupted in more than 700 years prior to this event and few Romans knew what a volcano was – in fact there was not even a word for it at that time.
Pliny speaks of “a cloud of unusual size and appearance….being like an umbrella pine, for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches…”. Later he mentions that….“great flames and vast fires shone from many points on Mount Vesuvius, the gleam and light made more vivid by the night time shadows”.
Finally, as the most destructive pyroclastic surge of all roared towards Misenum, he fled with his mother.
Evidence of this destruction – from body casts to household items – is on display at A Day in Pompeii and a dramatic 3D animation shows the tragedy unfold, just as Pliny described
Pliny’s accounts to Cornelius Tacitus were so accurate that this type of explosive volcanic eruption is now called 'Plinian' in his honour.
Today more than three million people live in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius. It remains active and is described as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the dense population around it and because of its tendency towards Plinian eruptions.
“A Day in Pompeii has been one of the Museum’s most popular exhibitions and Perth is one of only two Australian host cities,” said Mr Coles.
Tickets are available through BOCS Ticketing or from the A Day in Pompeii ticketing desk at the WA Museum. Visitors can purchase two tickets for the price of one for all exhibition viewings on Tuesday August 24 2010.
The exhibition is showing daily at the WA Museum – Perth until Sunday September 12, 2010.
A Day in Pompeii is presented by the Western Australian Museum and Eventscorp and exhibited by the Soprintendenza Speciale per I Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei (SANP) and Museum Victoria.
Marie Mills or Nicola Howarth
Mills Wilson Communication Consultants
Tel: 9228 1999
Mob: 0418 918 202 or 0433 445 996
mariem@millswilson.com.au or nicolah@millswilson.com.au
Caroline Lacy
Western Australian Museum
Tel: 92123860
Mob: 0414 381761
caroline.lacy@museum.wa.gov.au
