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Comparing the two big Pompeii body cast batches changed how I read the whole site
The casts made from the 1860s Fiorelli plaster method versus the resin ones from the 1980s look totally different up close, and the older ones hold way more detail of the actual bodies, so now I always check which era a cast comes from before trusting what a display placard claims about how someone died.
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the_john1m ago
Wow, that is wild. I had no clue the Fiorelli casts from the 1860s and the resin ones from the 80s could look that different. It makes sense that the older plaster would pick up way more detail of the actual bodies since the resin stuff seems to lose something by comparison. The part that really gets me is that placards might be stating cause of death based on a cast that already lost half the features. I'm going to be looking at the era tag on every cast from now on, that is for sure.
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