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They are going from strength to
strength at the wonderful British
Museum. The run of exciting
exhibitions held inside the atmospheric
round Reading Room of the old
British Library that began with
the Terracotta Army in 2007 comes
to an end in 2013 with Pompeii &
Herculaneum: Life & Death in The
Roman Empire. It opens on 28 March
2013 and runs right through until
29 September 2013. This is a show
not to be missed and it will sell out.
In AD 79, Herculaneum and Pompeii
on the Bay of Naples were wiped out
in just 24 hours by the catastrophic
eruption of the nearby Mount Vesuvius.
Like Brighton is to Hove, Margate to
Whitstable, Clacton to Frinton, Pompeii
was the larger, noisier town, full of
bars and brothels. Herculaneum was
wealthier and quieter. These were not
extraordinary cities; the inhabitants died
in an extraordinary way, but these were
ordinary Roman cities, and because of
this they have become a lens through
which we can see and understand a
whole civilisation. In the words of
Museum Director, Neil MacGregor this
blockbuster exhibition will be a chance:
“
to visit the cities and to visit the houses
in the cities; to be inside a Roman
household, inside a Roman street;
to know what it felt like, to know what
was going on
.”
And therein lies the theme of our day at
the British Museum – at home with the
ancients. Here’s the exhibition curator,
Paul Roberts:
“Daily life; the home, and domestic life,
it’s something that we all share. The
home gives us a wonderful opportunity
Join us to visit this landmark exhibition
at the British Museum. If you came with
us to the Terracotta Army exhibition
you’ll know what a hit our galleries
tour was to accompany the exhibition.
And with 13 acres of galleries at the
British Museum you needn’t worry that
you’ll be covering old ground!
Arrive at the British Museum at 10.30am
to buy refreshments in the Great Court
cafés and then while one half of your
party visits the Pompeii exhibition
the other half will enjoy a guided tour
with, quite simply, a brilliant Blue
Badge Guide who will take you on a
fascinating trail through the domestic
life of our ancient forebears from the
four corners of the globe. The tour will
be an entertaining and memorable insight
into how people lived and organized
their homes in ancient Babylon, Assyria,
Egypt and Greece.
We break for lunch and swap over in the
afternoon with the day coming to an end
after a pause for tea. You’ll be heading
home at 4.45pm.
to explore how people like us lived in
Roman times: perhaps they didn’t all go
to the baths, or the amphitheatre, but
poor or wealthy they all had a home.
We can’t imagine the horror of that day,
but we can see what people did. Some of
them were practical, taking a lantern or
a lamp to help them stumble through the
total darkness of the volcanic blizzard.
Other people took gold and silver in the
form of coins or jewellery. One little girl
took her charm bracelet with pieces from
all over the Roman world and beyond,
such as cowries from the Indian Ocean,
amber from the Baltic, rock crystal from
the Alps, incense from Egypt. She had
this with her when she died on the beach
at Herculaneum with hundreds
of others.”
2,000 years later that charm bracelet will
be among over 250 objects on display as
well as an extraordinarily well-preserved
loaf of bread that “
went in the oven in
AD 79 and came out in the 1930s
”.
Also on show will be the body casts
of six people, including a family of
two adults and two children who died
huddled together under the steps of their
villa, and a pet dog. This agonizing
human element is what makes the
Pompeii story so eternally compelling.
The body casts will be shown in
a separate section at the end. Neil
MacGregor is determined to afford the
body casts some dignity:
“
These are real people, and we will treat
them with the greatest respect. If these
people had not died, we would not have
this exhibition.
”
Available Mondays to Fridays only
28 March to 27 September 2013.
Adults & Seniors: £24.00
Coach Mileage: 10
Due to British Museum terms and
conditions, full payment is due
two weeks before the trip. We
will refund £12.00 per place for
subsequent cancellations subject
to our usual minimum of 35 people.
At Home With The Ancients - Pompeii at The British Museum
info@cityandvillagetours.com