Opening Pompeii

I went last night to the opening of the Pompeii show at the BM. Boris J did the main speech, addressing us as docti and doctissimae (maybe something of a comedown after his opening of the Hadrian show, when he did the whole thing in both Latin and English). He was extremely funny, though in truth 12 hours later I have entirely forgotten the jokes (which may I suspect be indicative about BoJo's staying power).

The exhibition is really excellent and worth the visit -- partly because of the greatest hits it includes (like the picture above) but partly it has such a lot of the stuff that is not on display in Italy. That's to say, if you have been lucky enough to visit Pompeii a few times, there is still plenty here that you wont have seen.

For me the highlight is the furniture -- because it's what always seems missing from any visit to the site itself. In fact, plenty did get carbonised at Herculaneum and it's all kept together out of the public eye in a storage room on the site. Anyway some choice pieces have come here (not just the baby's cradle that I was allowed to rock when we filmed Meet the Romans, but a table, and a wind-lass... etc ).

In terms of wider issues of museology, I think one issue that we'll be discussing with the students in Cambridge is how Pompeii and Herculaneum come across differently when they are boiled down to objects.. rather than experienced as urban sites. 

On site the pleasure of the two little towns is rooted in that experience of wandering the real Roman streets, and twisting your ankle in the real Roman cart ruts. So what happens when you are looking a star items in a beautifully displayed exhibtion. Partly you see the quality of some stuff not noticed before. Pan and the goat, for all its notoriety, is actually a wonderful work of art. (Same is true for a couple of statues of Livia you meet on the way in.) 

Other things lose by their museum context. I doubt, for example, that without a bit of help many people will get excited by the painted electoral slogan.

But there will be help. I've been involved in planning a whole range of events which take the "Pompeii experience" a bit further. We'll be doing a kind of "Virgil masterclass" (reading some Latin even if you dont know more than amo amas amat).. and we'll be hosting a big discussion about what the point of learning Latin. I hope it won't just be full of the converted.. do come to have a good argument.