Pompeii Casts. Victim 79. Date and place unknown. Possibly the running man from the Palaestra?

Estelle Lazer provided this information by email:

The cast image is a bit of a mystery. I have spoken to several people about it and no one seems to know when it was cast or where it came from.

It was stored in the church in Pompeii and came back to the site when the cast restoration project started in 2015.

We have x-rayed it extensively. It has what appears to be a complete skeleton and appears to be intact. 

I will certainly let you know if I can manage to find out more about it.  

Recently when looking at NdS for the Palestra, we came across a description of a second cast taken there, near the “crouching man”. 

Maiuri described him as “The one was a beautiful young man's body with agile legs knocked down on the portico floor at the first fall of the ashes.”

And also, according to Maiuri “the handsome body of a young man, one of those strong, agile young men from Campania, with athletic legs just made for running and for the last gasp of the race”. The victim had been identified as an athlete, also because of the discovery near his body of bronze strigils, usually used by gymnasts.”

This would seem to fit the above fugitive with his strong muscular legs, but we cannot be certain.

For Maiuri’s “Scavo della “Grande Palestra” nel quartiere dell’Anfiteatro, - see Notizie degli Scavi, Anno 1939, Fascicoli 7, 8, 9, on pages 165-238.

See Guzzo, P. (ed), (2003). Tales from an eruption. Milano, Electa. (p.143, article by Tiziana Rocco, and (p.144) for photos of items found.

If you can help us with identifying this cast please get in touch.

Da – Maiuri’s “Scavo della “Grande Palestra” nel quartiere dell’Anfiteatro, - vedi Notizie degli Scavi, Anno 1939, Fascicoli 7, 8, 9, on pages 165-238

(No. 61-62. Si rinvennero verso l’estremità orientale dall'ambulacro meridionale e se ne potè eseguire il calco perchè giacenti l’uno e l’altro nello strato alto di cenere.

L’uno era un bel corpo di giovinetto con le gambe agili e asciutte, stramazzato sul pavimento del portico al primo cadere delle ceneri.

L’altro il più tragicamente atteggiato; si rinvenne addossato al muro, ginocchioni, accosciato sul terreno, in quella positura di rannicchiamento che si ritrova nei sepolcri neolitici, con la testa ripiegata in avanti, curvata quasi fra le ginocchia, per meglio proteggersi con le mani e con il mantello dall’esalazione dei gas asfissianti. Aveva calzari ai piedi e portava il tipico mantello dei villici, la cuculla, i cui lembi egli teneva compressi alla bocca. E nel rimuovere la cenere sotto le ginocchia si notarono impronte di tessuti sovrapposti, come se lo sventurato avesse cercato un po’ di ristoro in quella sua tragica positura fulcendo le ginocchia con i pochi indumenti di cui poteva disporre. (p.225-6).)

Victim 79. April 2019. Cast on display at Pompeii in the display area near the amphitheatre entrance. Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer.

Victim 79 is probably a male aged over 20 years old.

The location and date of its find are not known.

The PAP Archive photographs D 372 and D 576 do not have any information or context recorded.

The body was laying on its left side when found.

There are drapery folds around the waist and traces on the torso.

See Osanna, N., Capurso, A., e Masseroli, S. M., 2021. I Calchi di Pompei da Giuseppe Fiorelli ad oggi: Studi e Ricerche del PAP 46, p. 502-4, Calco n. 79.

Victim 79. May 2018. Cast on display at Pompeii in the display area near the amphitheatre entrance. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.

With his beautiful, muscled legs, we are wondering if he was the other plaster-cast taken in the Palaestra by Maiuri in 1937 and described as “a man still appearing to be running, even in death”.

See Notizie degli Scavi, Anno 1939, Fascicoli 7, 8, 9, on pages 165-238

It could be hypothesized that it is the cast created on 8-9 January 1951 during the excavation of the central area of the Palestra Grande, but there are no archive photos to verify this.