Pompeii Casts. Victim 3, found 5th/6th February 1863 in Vicolo degli Scheletri.

Victim 3 is estimated to be 7 to 12 years old. The sex is undefined.

Found with victim numbers 1, and 2, a small distance from victim number 4.

Said to have been found on 6th of February 1863 with victims 1 and 2, a small distance from victim 4.

The location of the other three victims found near no. 3 was not precisely reported, but it is understood that it was the same place as victim 2.

In particular, victims 2 and 3 were 10 palms (about 2.5m) from the corner of insulae 10 and 13 of Regio VII, where lay victim 1.

In fact, no. 4 was located about 25m from the other three bodies.

It seems that there were many details related to the clothing but they are no longer visible.

See Osanna, N., Capurso, A., e Masseroli, S. M., 2021. I Calchi di Pompei da Giuseppe Fiorelli ad oggi: Studi e Ricerche del PAP 46, p. 321-3, Calco n. 3.

Victims numbered 2 (left) and 3 (behind right). G Sommer photo no. 1242. Note: Date is given as 5th Feb 1863. Photo courtesy of Eugene Dwyer.

In his description of these plaster-casts in his Guida di Pompei, 1877, Fiorelli described –

“Two women [nos. 2 and 3], one next to the other. The older resting on her side; the younger face down, with her face in her arm.

(Reg.VII, Insula XIV, via quarta).”

See Fiorelli, Guida di Pompei, [Rome, 1877,] p.88-89.

See Dwyer, E., 2010. Pompeii’s Living Statues. Ann Arbor: Univ of Michigan Press, (p.94).

According to Maiuri, these plaster-casts were badly mutilated during the 1943 bombing of the antiquarium –

“Among the rubble, there surfaced broken fragments of the cases and, lying in ruin, contorted and mutilated, like the victims of the recent catastrophe, the casts of the dead of two millennia ago, the victims that the lapilli and cenere of the eruption of 79 had reverently contained and that a more inhuman violence had mutilated and dishonoured in violating their sacred peace of the dead.”

According to Dwyer, -

“Most of the contents of the museum were beyond repair. Fiorelli’s original casts of 1863 were destroyed. Aside from conserving those of the earlier casts that could be salvaged, Maiuri added to the museum only one of the casts made during his long superintendency: the cast of a muleteer.”

See Dwyer, E., 2010. Pompeii’s Living Statues. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. (p.121).

Victims 2 and 3. 5th Feb 1863. G Sommer and E. Behles, stereoview no. 356, 1867–1874. Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer.

Plaster-casts of victims 2 and 3, photographed on an upper floor (possibly from VII.6.7), looking north towards Vicolo di Modesto and Vesuvius.

Centre-left can be seen the rebuilt School of Archaeology on Via Consolare. Photo courtesy of Eugene Dwyer.

Victims 2 and 3 in upper picture and victim number 1 in lower picture.

See Niccolini F, 1862. Le case ed i monumenti di Pompei: Volume Secondo. Napoli, Descrizione Generale, Tav. XVIII.

Victims 2 and 3, photograph taken by Brogi (no. 5578) in a display case in the museum. Photo courtesy of Eugene Dwyer.

According to Dwyer –

“Errors crept into the Museum, as the contents were frequently moved to make room for new castings.

On one Brogi photograph (no. 5578), the casts of the two women, numbers 2 and 3, are described as “Body of man and boy”.

See Dwyer, E., 2010. Pompeii’s Living Statues. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, (p.108).

Plaster casts of victims 2 and 3. 1870. Drawing by Breton.

According to Breton, “She lies flat on her stomach, her legs contracted and her face pressed against her left arm.

Her hand grasps a fold of her garment, in which she apparently tried to wrap her head.

The form of this head is perfectly preserved, and a large portion of the cranium itself is exposed.”

See Breton, Ernest. 1870. Pompeia, Guide de visite a Pompei, 3rd ed. Paris, Guerin. (p.280-282)

See Dwyer, E., 2010. Pompeii’s Living Statues. Ann Arbor: Univ of Michigan Press. (p.63).