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Pompeii at the ROM Saturday

2/12/2015

6 Comments

 
On Saturday we took a short walk from our apartment to visit the Royal Ontario Museum and check out the latest exhibits!
Picture
The Royal Ontario Museum's new (ish) facade.
The ROM has a huge collection of art, world culture and natural history with a constant stream of new temporary exhibits, so we had to get a membership - it seems like there’s always something new to find there. At the moment, they have an exhibit on Pompeii that tells the story of the infamous volcanic eruption, and provides an insight into the daily lives of the Roman people at the time based on the incredibly well preserved artefacts found in the ancient city. ​
Picture
An ancient 'Beware of the Dog' sign.
We opted for a guided tour around the exhibit, which was a great way to learn the story of Pompeii. Along the way we gathered around the occasional artefact as our guide told the story of the piece. It was amazing to see how well the ash had preserved the statues, paintings and mosaics. A couple of things we learned:
  • Those beautiful white Roman statues you see used to be painted to be as lifelike as possible.
  • The Romans “cleaned” their togas with fermented urine, and halitosis was common. So the Roman empire was a bit smelly.
  • There were female Gladiotors called Gladiatrix.
  • Gladiators were Roman celebs, and were often too valuable to just kill off.
  • Actors too were celebrities, and people wrote graffiti around town to express their fondness for them.
Picture
Our guide explaining togas to us.
After a vivid picture of life in Pompeii had been painted, we encountered the second half of the exhibit which presented the human toll of the eruption. The ROM had a number of casts of the original human remains from the site. It was a pretty tragic sight, especially since we’d spent the prior 45 minutes picturing a vibrant city that was full of life. ​
Picture
A 3D Printed cast of the "Sick Man" from Pompeii.
However, although the volcanic eruption was a devastating tragedy, as archaeologists uncover more and more of the site, the way that the city was preserved will provide insights into Roman life in 79 AD for generations to come.
Picture
Roman glass that melted in the heat.
Another temporary exhibit currently on display in the ROM is the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year. We’d been to see the last few Wildlife Photographer exhibits at the Natural History Museum in London, so it was very cool to be able to see it down the road from us. Needless to say, an amazing exhibit with lots of mind-blowingly beautiful images.

The day ended off with some tasty food and drinks (this seems to be a theme in Toronto) with a couple of our friends. All in all, another successful Something Saturday in Toronto! We’re looking forward to exploring all that the ROM has to offer as time goes on.

​Here are some more photos from our trip to the ROM:
Curious to see what we were up to last year? We were showing our friend Jon around St. John's and enjoying Nouvelle Newfoundlandland Cuisine at Bacalao. And back in 2013 we visited Admiralty House in Mount Pearl.
6 Comments
Ashley @ The Wandering Weekenders link
7/12/2015 02:29:03 pm

That's so cool that the ROM had all of those artifacts on display from Pompei. It's so crazy to think that all of those people were going about their daily business and then all of a sudden everything was gone! It sounds like a very successful Something Saturday!

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Elizabeth link
9/12/2015 10:47:59 am

The museum (and guided tour) did such a great job of showing and explaining what Pompeii would have looked life before the eruption! History can be so hard to visualize sometimes and as it was a special exhibition in partnership with a museum in Pompeii, they had quite a few amazing artifacts! It was an impressive exhibit.

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Yvonne @ Lost with Yvonne link
12/12/2015 06:51:15 pm

I love museums and taking tours of them. You can really learn a lot from them and learning about Pompeii, I always found that interesting so it's cool to see all those artifacts!

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Elizabeth link
14/12/2015 02:48:53 pm

Exactly, it was such a great way to learn about Pompeii, and taking a guided tour is one of my favourite ways to see a museum (or city)!

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Mar Ward link
20/12/2015 01:09:20 pm

We visited to real Pompeii this summer and a lot of artifacts were off display. Turns out, its because they we back at home at the ROM! I need to make a trip to see the exhibition before it is gone in January.

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Elizabeth link
21/12/2015 02:53:09 pm

Awww how funny! It's a great exhibit so it's definitely worthwhile, and I'm sure you'd get even more from it because you've been to Pompeii.

A similar thing happened to me when I was in Egypt and the tour guide kept pointing out where obelisks and other structures used to be, that are now in the British Museum. So I obviously had to check them out in the British Museum!

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