Now on display at the Carnegie Science Center is Pompeii: The Exhibition — where visitors will experience the sights, sounds and sensations before, during and after the catastrophic 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which left the city of Pompeii frozen in time!

 

This traveling exhibition features nearly 200 artifacts, from jewelry to cooking tools and gladiator helmets – and they’re more than 2,000 years old, preserved in the ashes of the decimated city.

My friends and I learned about how this ancient city was a bustling commercial port and strategic military/trading center. The artifacts showed how the people of this old Italian city lived, worked and found entertainment.

Telling the story of Pompeii in its food is another story in itself, which I thought was the most interesting part of the exhibit. The Pompeians loved to eat and drink wine. Throughout the exhibit rooms, I learned about which kitchen tools were built for cooking and serving; popular foods like bread and spices prepared by cooks and servants; the popularity of wine (thanks to the land’s rich soil); and how the rich families socialized over dinner. 

 

 

 

Visitors also have the opportunity to view body casts and experience the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius for themselves in the 4D Eruption Theater. Many of the artifacts are on loan from the unparalleled collection of the Naples National Archaeological Museum in Italy. So it’s a treat to have this in Pittsburgh for a limited time! If you’re a food or history buff, don’t miss this exhibit going on now until April 24, 2022. Click here for ticket prices and reservations.

 

 

(Disclaimer: I attended the exhibit on a media pass, and all opinions are my own.)