Ancient Italy is making another appearance in Arizona.
Back by popular demand after eight years, Pompeii: The Exhibition has returned to the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix with remarkably well preserved artifacts that are nearly 2,000 years old.
It’s Aug. 24, 79 A.D., and things start off quietly in one of the Roman Empire’s most prosperous cities. Off in the distance however, there's the rumble of Mount Vesuvius. Just after midday, fragments of ash and pumice begin shooting out, plummeting onto the city. Soon, roofs cave in under 9 feet of debris.
But the worst is yet to come. A pyroclastic flow, a deadly mixture of gas and volcanic matter, is heading down Vesuvius' slope. Unbeknownst to the Pompeiians not already killed by the debris, it’s about to incinerate the rest of them.
By the time it’s over less than 24 hours later, the city with a population of at least 10,000 — once teeming with bakeries, taverns, brothels, food shops, laundries — was all entombed under 20 feet of volcanic matter.
In this theater room at the Arizona Science Center, you literally feel the chill of the lifeless winds that blew over Pompeii that fateful day.
Alix Bierson is the center’s senior scientist for Biology and Environmental Science.
“I’m a geologist by training, so I get really excited about the volcano and the way that this incredibly tragic event allows us to have this time capsule into the past,” Bierson said.
It wasn’t until the 18th century that Pompeii and the nearby city of Herculaneum were unearthed with ancient artifacts, including weapons, armor, statues and cooking pots frozen in time. About 150 of them are on display until April, as the roving exhibit returns to Phoenix for the first time since 2017.
Sari Custer is the Science Center’s chief of science and curiosity.
"Archaeologists had this unique opportunity when they uncovered Pompeii in the 1700s to see exactly where things would have been in the homes, in businesses, I mean what was in the pots is still preserved," Custer said.
Almost like it was made in modern times.
“The city was destroyed but it was preserved. So when that superheated ash covered the city, it wasn’t that they were used or destroyed," Custer said.
In the like-new artifacts: evidence of an advanced 1st century society.
“I mean, it was a rich town. They were prosperous. It was a port town, so there were a lot of markets and industry there and you can see how advanced they were,” Custer said.
The most striking part of the exhibition though may be in the form of plaster.
“When archaeologists were uncovering the city, they found these large vacuous spaces, and they said ‘What are these big holes?’ And so, one of the scientists said, 'let’s fill it with plaster and see what the shape is,'” Custer said.
“When they pulled that plaster out, it was in the shape of a human. And they did this over and over again with all these spaces and ended up finding many people where the body had decomposed and left the space.”
The dug-out casts reveal crumpled bodies and shocked facial features; still chillingly intact.
“That is extremely emotional to see the last moments of those people’s lives that was devastating. But again, a really unique glimpse into something that happened 2,000 years ago," Custer said.
Bierson, the geologist, said volcanic activity is also a thing in Arizona, and even more recently.
“Our most recent eruption here in Arizona was actually 1,000 years ago, the small volcano at Sunset Crater erupted up in the San Francisco lava fields and we have volcanism all over the state,” Bierson said.
“Up in Flagstaff, down south in the Chiricahua Mountains, so there’s definitely a lot of parallel between the history we see at Pompeii and the geology we have here as well," Bierson said.
But Custer said another eruption here isn’t anticipated, at least anytime soon.
“Geologically, that’s just yesterday, so the potential is there. Is it likely we’ll have a volcanic eruption tomorrow? No, but the potential is there and it did happen in the time that people were living here in Arizona, 1,000 years ago," Custer said.
The exhibition, on loan from Italy, is on display at the Arizona Science Center until April 12, 2026.
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